St. Croix Man Sentenced to 19 Months for Firearms Possession Associated with a Planned Robbery

St. Croix, USVI – On July 19, 2018, District Court Judge Wilma Lewis sentenced Maurice Doyle, age 27, of St. Croix, to time served of 19 months in prison for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, United States Attorney Gretchen C.F. Shappert announced today. Judge Lewis also sentenced Doyle to three years of supervised release and ordered him to pay a $1,000.00 fine and a special assessment of $100.00.

Doyle pled guilty to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon on February 22, 2018. According to evidence presented in court, on December 4, 2015, Doyle was operating a vehicle carrying two male passengers. The three men travelled to Williams Delight in order to obtain firearms in preparation for a planned robbery. The passenger in the rear seat of the vehicle obtained a pistol and a .223 rifle from someone at Williams Delight and re-entered Doyle’s vehicle with the weapons. A police chase later ensued and the passenger in the rear seat discharged shots at the police. No one was injured, and the robbery did not occur. Doyle and the two passengers abandoned the vehicle and fled. None of the three was apprehended on December 4, 2015. Doyle later reported the vehicle as stolen. He was not arrested until December of 2016.

Doyle had previously been convicted in 2012 in the Virgin Islands Superior Court of unauthorized firearm possession of a firearm.

The case was investigated by the Virgin Islands Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Alphonso Andrews, Jr.