Mugshot of K'jana Dorset. Photo Credit: THE VIRGIN ISLANDS POLICE DEPARTMENT.
ST. THOMAS — A woman was charged with several felony offenses after officers stopped her in a vehicle that had been reported stolen an hour earlier.
According to court documents, police were dispatched to Lindbergh Bay early on Friday morning after receiving the report. Responding officers met a man who told them that he had come home at around 1 o'clock that morning and parked his white Jeep Cherokee in his driveway. He had dropped the key under the seat and decided to retrieve it later, the man told officers.
About an hour after he came home, the man said his girlfriend woke up to attend to their crying infant and noticed the vehicle in the driveway. By 6 a.m. when he woke up, the Jeep was gone.
The thief, the man told officers, hit a wall at the rear of a nearby grocery store, damaging the wall and leaving a part of the vehicle at the scene. An all-points bulletin was issued for the white Cherokee.
At about 7:25 that same morning, a V.I. Port Authority officer stopped a vehicle matching the description on the bulletin near the Lindbergh Bay Beach water park. The woman driving, K'jana Dorset, was detained until a police officer could arrive.
When they got there, police asked her where she got the vehicle. “I got it from America,” they say Ms. Dorset responded. The keys were found in her pocket. Subsequently, the vehicle owner arrived on scene and identified his Jeep. Officers also noted paint on the vehicle that matched the color of the painted grocery store wall that was struck when the vehicle was stolen.
Dorset was ultimately transported to the Richard Callwood Command police station where she was charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle, possession of stolen property, damage to a vehicle, destruction of property, leaving the scene of a traffic accident without reporting, and operating a vehicle without a valid driver's license. She was remanded into custody to await her advice of rights hearing.
Court records indicate that Dorset appeared before Magistrate Paula Norkaitis on Monday, however details of her hearing, including the judge's orders on bail and pretrial release, are not yet publicly available as of press time.
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