Sentencing date moved forward for Edwards, John-Baptiste and Brooks
Published: February 21, 2012
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Officer Enid Edwards
ST. THOMAS - U.S. District Judge Curtis Gomez has rescheduled sentencings - now set for April 5 - for former V.I. Police officers Enid Edwards and Francis Brooks and former V.I. Port Authority Officer Bill John-Baptiste, who have been on house arrest since their convictions in January 2011.
During an evidentiary hearing in November, Gomez said he would sentence the defendants before Thanksgiving.
He later rescheduled the sentencings to June 21 before finalizing the date to 9:30 a.m. April 5 in District Court.
Edwards, Brooks and John-Baptiste were convicted in January 2011 of 24 counts that included drug trafficking, extortion and robbery between 2000 and 2005.
Gomez cleared most of the docket's post-trial motions that had stalled the sentencings.
In response to the motions, Gomez denied a request by three defense attorneys that Gomez recuse himself from the case because of partiality and a number of requests to dismiss the case after a prosecution witness' identity was challenged.
An evidentiary hearing in November revealed the U.S. Probation Office had suspicions about the identity of the witness, Troy Willock, while he was in federal custody on other charges.
Defense attorney Russell Pate, representing Edwards, filed a motion stating the witness' actual identity is Gregory Maynard.
"It would be an infinitesimally small chance of coincidence that the imposter Troy Willock could steal the identity of a person who shared his same name, date of birth, and place of birth," Pate wrote.
On Dec. 29, Gomez denied Pate's motion asking for reconsideration of whether the prosecution witness' identification problems contaminated the juror's guilty verdict.
There was no evidence that such an alleged "manifest injustice" arose, according to Gomez's order denying the request.
Defense attorneys George Hodge Jr., representing Brooks, and Robert King, representing John-Baptiste, filed the request among a flurry of motions asking the court to help discover the prosecution witness' true identity.
- Contact reporter Michael Todd at 714-9104 or email mtodd@dailynews.vi.
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