From left to right, mugshots Ajani Nicholas, Kevin Nicholas, and Sincere Williams. Photo Credit: THE VIRGIN ISLANDS POLICE DEPARTMENT.
ST. CROIX — Documents before the V.I. Superior Court have shed light on the details of the allegations that resulted in three young men being arrested and charged with raping a 13-year old girl.
The Consortium has seen the three affidavits that underlie sexual assault charges against Sincere Williams, Ajani Nicholas and Kevin Nicholas, who are alleged to have raped a girl they first met on social media.
The minor child’s mother was reportedly first made aware of what was going on in early December 2022, when she was called to the school. There, her daughter reportedly disclosed to her that she had been having sexual intercourse with several older males that she thought were at least seventeen.
According to the affidavits, the girl said that last October, she received a message on Snapchat from someone she called “Jani” - Ajani Nicholas. Nicholas reportedly asked her to meet him, convincing her to overcome her initial reluctance by promising that she would have fun during the encounter. The girl said that “Jani” knew that she was thirteen, but she did not know how old he was. She eventually agreed to meet with Nicholas, and on October 24 he reportedly picked her up from her house for the first time, driving a black Acura with tinted windows and black interiors.
According to the girl's statement to police, "Jani" led her to a location near her home and proceeded to expose himself to her, engaging in sexual misconduct and making inappropriate demands. Nicholas reportedly recorded the act on his iPhone. After they were done, he dropped her off near a school in her neighborhood so that she could find her way back home.
Almost three weeks later, on November 13 “Jani” allegedly picked up the girl again, this time driving a dark blue vehicle she believed may have been a Nissan Altima. Instead of at her home, he picked her up at the school a little further up the road. He drove her to an unfinished building, parked, and told her to get into the back seat. She complied, and says that Nicholas began having sex with her, ignoring her complaints that it hurt. The 13-year old admitted that she had been a virgin before the encounter ended. He dropped her off that day at the same place he picked her up.
On Thursday November 24, the girl recounted that she had sex with Sincere Williams. It was about 2:00 a.m. when he picked her up by the school, reportedly driving a gray Ford SUV. Williams, a student of Central High School, had previously sent her a message on SnapChat, the girl said. When she got into the vehicle, she told police that “Jani” was also there, to her great surprise. According to the teen girl, Williams drove her and Nicholas to the same location she had previously been raped by Nicholas. There, she and Williams got out of the vehicle, and “Jani” stayed behind. Williams engaged in sexual misconduct with the minor, and they had intercourse as well. In speaking with police, the girl said she was unsure if Williams knew about her and “Jani”, but concluded that it was possible Nicholas had told Williams, prompting the latter to reach out to her on Snapchat as well.
The next day, Friday, Williams came to pick her up again, this time with another man, who was driving a black Toyota Camry. The three went back to the building and both men had sex with the thirteen year old there, according to the affidavits. She said she later found out that the second man was Kevin Nicholas, “Jani”’s brother, and according to the testimony of the police officer who took the girl and her mother’s statements, this was the only encounter the teen had with Kevin, Ajani Nicholas’s brother.
Two days later, “Jani” reportedly had sex with the girl again. On November 27 2022, Nicholas picked her up from near the school, and drove her back behind that same unfinished building. This time, he was driving a green truck, the girl said. This time, he reportedly wore a condom while he raped her. Once again, Nicholas dropped the minor child back by the school once he was done, and she walked home. The girl told police that “Jani” claimed to be seventeen.
Towards the end of January, the girl met with police at home to review photographs of several males, all with similar facial characteristics. She identified known photos of Sincere Williams, Ajani Nicholas and Kevin Nicholas as those who had raped her.
In February, the girl’s mother sent police a screenshot of an Instagram account bearing the name of Kevin Nicholas, which was reportedly trying to contact the minor child.
On March 18, 2023, the girl said that she reached out to “Jani”, having added him back to her SnapChat contacts. She told Nicholas that she missed him, and he responded suggesting that they meet. She agreed, and he once again picked her up in a white Kia sedan at the usual spot “in the middle of the night”. Driving the car this time was someone she did not know, describing him as a man with shoulder-length locks. “Jani” told her that the man wanted to have sex with her as well, but she declined. The three drove to a residence in Upper Love, where Williams was waiting inside. Williams and the dreadlocked man then reportedly disappeared into a bedroom, leaving the girl and Nicholas alone in the living room, where they had sex on the couch. When they were finished, he and the unknown man took her back home.
The next month, Nicholas reportedly reached out to the girl again, propositioning her for sex, again asking if she would also sleep with the dreadlocked man. She told police she agreed to have sex with Nicolas, but specifically informed him that she did not want to be intimate with “the dreadhead”. Nicholas again agreed to her boundaries at that time. Once again, she walked to the school at 2:00 a.m. and to the white Kia, where the man with the dreadlocks was behind the wheel. He took her back to the home in Upper Love, where Williams was once again waiting. He and Nicholas then left the house, and the girl was now alone with the dreadlocked man.
Around 3:00 a.m. that same morning, the girl’s mother said she awoke to find a text message from her daughter. She replied, but grew concerned when her phone showed that someone was reading her messages, but her daughter did not respond. The woman said she went to check the girl’s bedroom to discover she was gone. She then called, and her daughter told her that she had left home with “Jani”. When the frantic woman tracked the girl’s phone, she told police that it showed the device as being somewhere past the Agricultural Fair grounds. The mother set off to retrieve her 13-year old daughter, but says her vehicle navigation system first took her down a closed road. The woman told police she began to panic, but then took a different route, honing in on her daughter's location until she saw the young girl standing alone on the side of the road.
As the duo were returning home, the mother says she saw a white vehicle approach and pass in the opposite lane. The girl identified Nicholas’s vehicle, and shortly afterwards her phone began to ring. It was a Snapchat call from Nicholas. The mother reportedly answered the phone and confronted “Jani”. According to her, she told him that she knew he was lying about being 17, and he rebutted by claiming that the sexual encounters between him and the 13-year-old were consensual. The mother says she saved that exchange of messages.
Ajani and Kevin Nicholas were arrested on April 28 and charged with second-degree aggravated rape, while Sincere Williams was arrested two days later and faces the same charge. All three were initially assessed bail in the sum of $75,000 each, and all three, unable to pay, were remanded to the Bureau of Corrections to await their initial court appearances.
From what Consortium journalists are able to understand from public court records, the advice of rights hearings for Williams and the Nicholas brothers scheduled for May 1 may have been continued to Wednesday May 3. These records also indicate that someone paid $1,500 on behalf of Kevin Nicholas to secure his release ahead of trial.
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