A man convicted of taking part in the kidnapping and brutal murder of a St. Croix police officer in 2001 had his bid for a new trial turned down by the Virgin Islands Supreme Court. A three-judge panel rejected the argument made by a lawyer representing Jose Rivera, claiming there was new evidence to consider.
The demand for a new trial in light of new, post-trial evidence was made admissible by changes made to the Virgin Islands Rules of Criminal Procedure in December 2017.
Associate Supreme Court Justice Ive Arlington Swan wrote the opinion on Jan. 23. Swan, along with Chief Justice Rhys Hodge and Designated Justice Verne Hodge, said the defense did not have new or previously undiscovered information to present. They also rejected claims by Rivera’s attorney that a judge in Superior Court was wrong to deny their new trial motion in June 2020.
Five people were arrested in 2011 and charged with murder and related offenses. Rivera, along with co-defendant Jose Ventura, was found guilty in a jury trial for killing Officer Wendell Williams. Williams was last seen in early June 2014.
He was never seen alive again.
Details about his fate were delivered in testimony by Theresa Coggle, at the time, a 17-year-old exotic dancer and companion to a third codefendant — Maximiliano Velazquez. Velazquez was acquitted at trial.
Coggle told the court she arrived on the scene of Williams’ last moments in an abandoned building near Grapetree Bay in June 2001. Investigators were able to verify her statements by visiting the area. There, they found the abandoned building; the interior, as described by the witness, along with blood evidence, part of a broken blade, and a generator Coggle said was used to electrocute and torture Williams.
The witness also described a fatal shooting that took place and the dismemberment of Williams’ body. She also told the jury how she and another woman were ordered to clean up after Williams’ remains were taken away in trash bags.
Rivera’s lawyer claimed Coggle was somewhere on the U.S. mainland at the time of the incident and could not have seen the things she described. Justices said the defense had heard about the possibility that the key witness was living and working off-island at the time but failed to take all the steps needed to produce admissible evidence for trial.
“The mere fact that evidence was known is not sufficient,” Swan wrote. He added that the things she testified to about the crime scene were corroborated by investigators.
The Final Judgment and Order denying the defense motion, along with the Opinion of the Court, were both made public in late January.
Rivera and Ventura are currently serving life sentences without the possibility of parole.
