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Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeNewsPolice & CourtsHabitual Offender Sentenced to Life for Rape of Minor

Habitual Offender Sentenced to Life for Rape of Minor

 V.I. Superior Court Judge James Carroll III sentenced Alan Archibald, 44, this week, to life imprisonment for raping and impregnating a minor, the V.I. Department of Justice announced Friday.

According to the evidence presented at trial, between 2010 and 2011 Archibald repeatedly raped a 13-year-old girl and impregnated her.

Archibald was convicted of second-degree aggravated rape and incest by a jury on April 7. At the sentencing hearing, Assistant Attorney General James Connor, Jr. asked the court to sentence Archibald as a habitual offender, due to his history of rape convictions.

“A review of the defendant’s history shows that in 1991, he was 19 and was convicted of aggravated rape; the victim was 10 years old,” Connor said. “On January 29, 2002, he was convicted of aggravated rape and sentenced to eight years.”

Connor argued that Archibald has “never shown remorse” and that “he has been given leniency” which “has not worked.”

However the court also heard from Archibald’s victim, who pleaded with the court not to impose a life sentence.

“He repeatedly did a crime,” she said, “I know he has to serve time, but I don’t think he deserves life.”

DOJ social worker Elma Brathwaite disagreed with the victim’s plea for mercy.

“Your honor,” she said in her statement to the court as a victim advocate, “I just hope that you will not give this defendant another opportunity to destroy more lives, because his history shows that he will not stop. He should never be around children again.”

Also addressing the court was Candace Robinson, a social worker in the Division of Family and Children Services at the Department of Human Services.

“In my professional opinion, Alan Archibald has indeed demonstrated he is a habitual offender,” Robinson said. “He is a threat to young teenage girls and I think the court must send a strong message that this behavior must stop, because it seems he can’t stop himself.”

In handing down his sentence, Carroll told Archibald that while he appeared to have taken some responsibility for his actions, the court had no alternative but to hand down the mandatory maximum sentence.

“I will, under the habitual offenders’ statute, sentence you to a term of life imprisonment,” Carroll said. “You don’t just destroy a child physically, but also psychologically. Victims of these types of sexual crimes rarely can go on. People develop severe psychological disturbances because of these types of crimes.”

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