Mugshot of Jaekwon Hodge. Photo Credit: THE VIRGIN ISLANDS POLICE DEPARTMENT.
ST. THOMAS — While awaiting trial for allegedly assaulting his mother, Jaekwon Hodge was arrested again, this time accused of robbery.
VIPD officers were dispatched to Lockhart Gardens on April 14 after being told that the suspect in an alleged robbery was fleeing the scene. When police arrived, they met the robbery victim sitting in a silver SUV. He pointed out the direction that the suspect went – initially towards 1st Avenue and then various housing communities, until he was out of sight.
The robbery victim told responding officers that he was sitting in his Toyota Rav4 when a man with a white shirt over his head approached his vehicle on the passenger’s side. The suspect attempted to open the door where a woman was sleeping inside, but it was locked. He told police that the man then came to the driver’s side of the vehicle where he was able to see that his right hand was covered with a red cloth, possibly concealing a firearm. Documents before the court allege that the two men got into a tussle, with the suspect throwing a rock at the SUV, damaging the interior display screen.
The suspect then reportedly followed the woman, who by then was trying to get to her vehicle parked nearby and attacked her from behind. She was able to get away and subsequently spoke to officers, telling them that she had come to Lockhart Gardens to speak with the victim. While they chatted, she fell asleep in his SUV and was awakened by someone trying to open the front passenger door where she was.
When she opened her eyes, she says she saw a man with a white shirt covering his face on the driver’s side of the vehicle, who then opened the driver’s door. The woman says she scrambled out of the SUV and ran towards her vehicle. While trying to enter her vehicle, she says she was pulled by the unknown male who then began to strike her with a closed fist. As a result of the assault, the woman sustained injuries to her hands, face and body.
According to documents before the courts, the victim then drove his vehicle closer to the woman’s while the suspect darted away. The woman got back into the Rav4 in an attempt to leave the area. When she looked back at her vehicle, she saw the unknown man rummaging through her personal belongings before running towards the Oswald Harris Court and Kmart. The woman subsequently discovered that she was missing a holographic fanny pack which held her phone, some cash, her credit card and her V.I. driver’s license.
Officers of Adam Command were notified that the suspect, identified as Jaekwon Hodge, had been spotted Richard Callwood Command. Hodge, someone known to the police, was apprehended and frisked. Officers found two cell phones and a pair of keys in his right front pocket, and he was subsequently handcuffed and placed in the police vehicle. When the robbery victims arrived at the scene, they identified Hodge as the man who had robbed and assaulted them.
Despite the red cloth draped over his hand while committing the alleged robbery, investigations did not link Hodge to any firearm, nor was one found on his person. One of the two phones police found on his person turned out to be the one which was stolen from the woman. Her other items had been discarded. He reportedly told officers that the other phone had also been stolen in a previous incident.
Hodge was then arrested and charged with first-degree robbery, grand larceny, simple assault in the first degree, destruction of property, disturbance of the peace and buying, receiving or possessing stolen property.
Publicly available court records indicate that a pre-trial release order on these new charges was issued by the presiding judge despite his pending criminal matter.
