Accused of killing Stewart “Blue Boy” Sargeant in 2003, 28-year-old Crystal Irons moved one step closer to her trial for first-degree murder after a V.I. Superior Court judge set jury selection for April 26 during a status hearing Monday.
Irons, a Florida resident whom the VIPD linked to Sargeant’s murder through DNA evidence and some help from the FBI, appeared in Superior Court Monday after a plea deal was rejected last week.
Although prosecutors said Monday that they were still awaiting DNA evidence to return from an FBI lab on the mainland, Dunston formally set the trial process in motion by making the April 26 date for jury selection anyway.
“It sounds like the People won’t be ready to go to trial by then,” he said Monday, “but at least things will be clearer.”
Irons is charged with stabbing Sargeant to death in his Wintberg Heights home on Dec. 11, 2003.
At first cleared as a suspect, Irons was later tracked down by the VIPD Cold Case Squad in Ocala, Fla., where she was serving jail time for grand theft. Released early to face the murder charges, Irons was extradited to St. Thomas on Feb. 2.
Judge Dunston set bail at $200,000, which Irons was unable to post. She has since been in the custody of the V.I. Bureau of Corrections while awaiting trial.
Dunston ordered her and attorneys on both sides back into court on April 6 for a status hearing.
