ST. THOMAS — Jurors seated for the rape trial of 42-year-old Irvin Ocasio convicted him of sexually assaulting a woman while she was sleeping, V.I. Department of Justice Public Media Officer Corliss Smithen announced Friday. The incident occurred a little more than four years ago.<\/p>\n
Multiple requests for a picture of Mr. Ocasio from The Consortium to the V.I.P.D., which takes mugshots of suspects, have yielded no positive results, with the force’s media specialist, Sakeeda Freeman, telling The Consortium late Friday that she had yet to receive the picture from detectives.<\/p>\n
Attorney General Claude Earl Walker, in commenting on the outcome of the trial, described the victim as \u201cvery brave\u201d and vowed that his department will continue to seek justice for such victims.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe victim was very brave in reporting the rape to VIPD, and confronting the rapist at trial,\u201d Mr. Walker said. \u201cWe are fed up with women being sexually attacked in the Virgin Islands, and DOJ will spare no effort to bring these rapists to justice \u2013 no matter if the rapist is a family member or friend \u2013 because it is completely unacceptable and a serious crime to perform a sexual act on a woman who is not actively consenting, such as in this case.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Ocasio, who was free on bail pending trial, was immediately remanded into custody after the jury rendered its verdict.<\/p>\n
V.I. Superior Court Judge Denise Francois has set Aug. 1 as the date for his sentencing.<\/p>\n
During the course of the four-day trial, jurors heard the testimonies of seven prosecution witnesses, including the victim, who was overcome with emotion as she recounted the events of the Mar. 7, 2013 crime. \u201cI don\u2019t have a life,\u201d she said, when asked how the incident has affected her.<\/p>\n
Mr. Ocasio also took the witness stand, denied any wrongdoing and told the jury that the sexual encounter was consensual.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m asking that you do justice,\u201d Assistant Attorney General Quincy McRae implored the jurors in his closing arguments. \u201cIn order to do justice in this matter, you have to rest that verdict on the truth. If you rest your verdict on an untruth that will be injustice.\u201d<\/p>\n
After almost three hours of deliberations Friday morning, jurors returned a unanimous verdict and found Mr. Ocasio guilty of both counts he faced \u2013 first-degree rape and first-degree unlawful sexual contact.<\/p>\n
Assistant Attorney General John Tolud also argued the case for the prosecution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ST. THOMAS — Jurors seated for the rape trial of 42-year-old Irvin Ocasio convicted him of sexually assaulting a woman while she was sleeping, V.I. Department of Justice Public Media Officer Corliss Smithen announced Friday. The incident occurred a little more than four years ago. Multiple requests for a picture of Mr. Ocasio from The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":53628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4400,191,147],"tags":[7054,1129],"yoast_head":"\n