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Charlotte Amalie
Friday, March 29, 2024
HomeNewsArchivesJudge Recuses Himself in Hospital Ground Murder Trial

Judge Recuses Himself in Hospital Ground Murder Trial

Citing a professional association with the mother of one of the defendants, Superior Court Judge James Carroll Monday removed himself from the trial of three St. Thomas men who were arrested over the weekend for the March 6 murder of 26-year-old Kevin James in Hospital Ground.
Carroll recused himself, but not before sending the prosecution back to the drawing board to reconsider whether they wanted bail or pretrial detention for three defendants with extensive criminal backgrounds – all of them either recently out of jail or already in custody when arrested for killing James.
No decision on bail was set Monday.
James was gunned down while he and others were in a vehicle near the Hospital Ground Basketball Court shortly after leaving Jaguars Nightclub early morning on March 6. He died later at Schneider Regional Medical Center.
Maliek Ostalaza, 21, and Jevern Philip, 23 – both from Tutu High Rise — and 28-year-old Jamal Morton of Savan, are accused of firing the fatal shots and are all charged with first-degree murder.
Police did not say what led them to the well-known trio, but at least two of them were not hard to find.
Ostalaza and Morton were already in the custody of the Bureau of Corrections in connection with their March 20 arrests for possessing illegal weapons and ammunition, and both were rearrested on Friday for murder while in custody.
Police nabbed Jevern Phillip at about 9:40 p.m. Saturday “without incident,” police said in a statement issued late Monday. Phillip had recently served at least part of a three-year sentence for another illegal weapons conviction in 2007, prosecutors said Monday.
The three defendants stood head-down and slouching as Judge Carroll read them their rights in court Monday, occasionally mumbling sheepishly to answer his questions.
While the prosecution asked for $250,000 bail for each of the three based on their criminal backgrounds and the nature of the crime, Judge Carroll questioned why prosecutors did not ask the court for pretrial detention.
“If you want bail, then ask for bail,” Carroll sternly told prosecutor Michael Motylinski. “But these young men will be out.”
He told Motylinski that a high bail cannot be used to detain a defendant in lieu of officially asking for detention.
“They very clearly represent a danger to the community,” he told the judge before asking for a continuance to take a new tack.
Carroll set arraignment for April 15 in Magistrate Court, where the case will be handled by another Superior Court Judge following Carroll’s recusal.
Carroll said he has had to do the same thing in several other cases involving Morton because he knows his mother – an officer with the VIPD Investigations Bureau.
All three men waved and smiled at uniformed friends in the VIPD who were in the gallery as they were led out of the court.

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