Mugshot of Kyle Christopher. Photo Credit: THE VIRGIN ISLANDS POLICE DEPARTMENT.
In a plea agreement dated August 17, prosecutors and Kyle Christopher have decided to pre-empt his trial on first-degree murder charges for the death of 4-year old Aaron Benjamin Jr. , which was scheduled to begin on Monday.
The young boy was found dead in his mother’s Lorraine Village housing community apartment on October 18, 2019. Medical examiners discovered that his body bore fresh and old abrasions, along with bite marks. His left eye was black and blue. At the time, the boy’s sister told police that Christopher habitually beat both children with a black stick.
For his part, Christopher admitted to beating the boy, causing him to fall and hit his head against a chair. In addition to murder, Christopher faced charges of aggravated assault and battery, aggravated child abuse and neglect, and third-degree assault.
The plea deal struck last Thursday will see Christopher pleading guilty to causing Benjamin’s death due to aggravated child abuse and neglect, with all other charges dismissed with prejudice, meaning they cannot be refiled by prosecutors.
The new plea agreement mirrors one signed in 2020 by then Assistant Attorney General Esther Walters. However, that agreement was not filed with the court until 2022, by which time it had already been withdrawn by Walters in a letter sent to Christopher’s attorney in October 2021. As such, it was deemed invalid and rejected by the court.
Now that a valid plea deal has been entered, a new date is expected for Christopher’s sentencing hearing to be conducted. The plea acknowledges that the admitted child abuser could spend between 5 and 30 years behind bars for his crime. Delicia Daniels, Aaron’s mother, is currently in prison following a plea agreement, entered in 2021, in which she admitted to one count of child abuse. She was sentenced to 18 years, with credit for the just over two years she was incarcerated while awaiting trial.
The shocking death of Aaron Benjamin Jr. was made even more tragic by the news that his father, Aaron Benjamin Sr., had spent months before his son’s death pleading for the V.I. Department of Human Services to investigate suspected child abuse in the home.
He told police that both his children had told him that they were being beaten by Christopher, and that they did not want to go back to their mother’s Lorraine Village apartment. Several reports to DHS were reportedly met with indifference, a circumstance that led to an internal audit following the 4-year old’s death.
The results of the audit have not been released to the public to this day, however DHS Commissioner Kimberly Causey-Gomez said in 2020 that personnel changes and disciplinary action came as a result of the investigation.
