Federal

Martinez and O’Neal Found Guilty on All Counts After Landmark Corruption Trial in St. Thomas

The federal corruption trial that has gripped the U.S. Virgin Islands reached a landmark conclusion Thursday afternoon, as a jury found former Police Commissioner Ray Martinez and former Office of Management and Budget Director Jenifer O’Neal guilty on all counts, convicting two of the territory’s most powerful former public officials of a sweeping scheme that prosecutors said “walked into corruption willfully.” The verdict came just hours after jurors began deliberating at 8:30 a.m., marking a decisive end to a case built on months of investigative work, thousands of recorded calls, financial tracing, and testimony from cooperating witness David Whitaker, whose dealings with both defendants formed the core of the government’s case. The decision delivered the accountability prosecutors argued the law required when “public officials betray the people they serve,” and punctuated a trial that showcased starkly different portrayals of the same evidence — one depicting calculated abuse of ...