ST. CROIX — The man facing involuntary manslaughter and negligent homicide charges for a deadly 2021 car crash will likely now not go to trial, after prosecutors sought to dismiss the charges against him. 

Kai Jackson was arrested over a year after the head-on collision between the black Ford F-150 he was driving and the red Suzuki Vitara operated by Sito Martin, who died in hospital as a result of his injuries. Jackson was charged after police determined that the collision occurred in the southbound lane, in which the Vitara was traveling. 

Court proceedings began in September 2022. By December of that year, defense counsel had filed to exclude key pieces of evidence in the government's case against Jackson: an affidavit from a police officer and videos from a police “re-enactment” of the incident. The videos and testimony fell far short of the standard required in the territory's Rules of Evidence, the defense argued, especially in light of alleged deficiencies in the police investigation immediately after the incident. The failure to include information about the deceased man's blood toxicology analysis, which revealed a high blood alcohol level as well as the presence of other intoxicating substances at the time of the crash, also presented a fatal flaw in the police affidavit, the defense claimed. As such, the officer's affidavit, the videos, and his potential introduction at trial as an expert witness should all be quashed, the defense argued.

That argument was rejected by the court, however, and the matter was allowed to proceed with that evidence intact. Trial was scheduled to begin on April 28, but on February 20, the government filed a motion to continue, citing another matter that had been scheduled for the same time. 

Presiding judge Yvette Ross-Edwards denied the request, noting that the conflicting matter cited by prosecutors had been scheduled for trial approximately several months after Jackson's case was scheduled, and therefore the government had ample opportunity to address any timetable conflicts much earlier in the process. 

Prosecutors then filed another motion to delay the trial, telling the court on February 28 that they just learned that the officer central to their case was going on a cruise vacation three days prior to the scheduled start of trial in April. “The People cannot proceed with presentation of the case without the case agent,” they stated. 

Without waiting for a response from Judge Ross-Edwards, prosecutors filed another motion on Monday, this time asking the court to dismiss the matter – with prejudice. “The People does not believe it can meet its burden of proof,” the motion says. 

In 2001, vehicular homicide and manslaughter charges against Jackson were also dismissed, again with prejudice.