Mugshot of Jahmar Frederick. Photo Credit: THE VIRGIN ISLANDS POLICE DEPARTMENT.
ST. CROIX — A repeat offender who was caught allegedly trying to smuggle contraband inside the John A. Bell Correctional Facility is back on the wrong side of the prison fence.
On Saturday afternoon, a correctional officer (CO) making his rounds spotted someone running towards the fence line by the prison’s visiting area. The CO saw the person try to push a black garbage bag underneath the prison’s inner perimeter fence. When the CO shouted at the man to stop, he ran to a nearby vehicle – a maroon Honda Crosstour – which was parked on prison grounds, and drove off towards the main entrance gate. In the same moment, an inmate who had been assigned to kitchen duty was seen leaving the vicinity of the fence. He was fired from the kitchen and reportedly restricted to his housing unit.
Meanwhile, the CO radioed the prison’s Central Control to instruct the guard booth not to let the rapidly approaching maroon vehicle leave the front gate. A police officer assigned to the Gang Intelligence Search Team at the prison heard the transmission, called the guard booth directly to advise the occupants of the instruction, and traveled towards the main entry gate himself to offer assistance.
As the officer in his personal vehicle and a marked Bureau of Corrections vehicle converged on the maroon Honda, it began to reverse towards another gate, driving around the police officer who had attempted to block its path. The officer says he jumped out, firearm drawn, and ordered the driver to stop, but the man ignored him and continued across the parking lot, heading towards the western side of the prison.
Back in the vehicle, police trailed the maroon vehicle to the prison’s west side, as other Bureau of Corrections vehicle joined in the pursuit. The two officers in the personal vehicle switched to a Bureau of Corrections vehicle and continued in pursuit of the Honda, when they saw the maroon SUV barrelling straight towards them. The driver, later identified as Jahmar Frederick, made a sharp right turn to avoid collision, which allowed the police to ram the maroon vehicle in an attempt to get it to stop.
Even after the first contact, Frederick continued his escape attempt, pursued by other BoC vehicles. When one tried to block him from the front, he reportedly rammed the vehicle but was ultimately pinned down and came to a halt.
Police approached the vehicle and ordered the occupants outside. Not only was Frederick in the Honda, but so was his sister and his sister’s two children, ages five and six. A check with the guard booth at the main entrance revealed that officers had only checked in the woman and the children when the Honda first arrived at the prison.
Along with the children in the back seat was a large black garbage back, which was found to contain 12 cartons of cigarettes, two soft-drink bottles that contained alcohol, 2 bottles of Hennessy, 6 cell phones, 1 pair of bluetooth earbuds, 1 pocket knife, 2 bluetooth speakers, 2 lighters, 2 packs of strong glue, 5 packages of tobacco leave, 5 packages of a plant substance weighing just over 40 ounces that tested positive for marijuana, and 50 packs of cigarette paper.
Jahmar Frederick was arrested and charged with child abuse, reckless endangerment, promoting dangerous prison contraband, introduction of a narcotic or addictive drug into prison, possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, and third-degree assault. He appeared in court on Monday for his advice of rights hearing.
This is just the latest brush with the law for Frederick, who has court records dating back to 2013. Since then, charges of firearm and ammunition possession were dismissed in 2018 following a plea agreement, as were 32 combined charges of forgery, counterfeiting, passing forged notes, obtaining money by false pretenses, grand larceny and identity theft. In 2020, Frederick was arrested again and charged with identity theft for counterfeiting business checks and forging the owner’s signature; in January of this year he pleaded guilty to one of the charges against him and was sentenced to a 3-year suspended sentence with credit for time served, and three years of supervised probation.
This means that Frederick was on probation at the time of this most recent alleged offense. A record of Monday's proceedings before Magistrate Ernest Morris Jr. was not available from the court’s public access website as of press time.
