Under Virgin Islands law, a criminal prosecution in the Superior Court may be lawfully initiated by information rather than grand jury indictment, for the reasons explained in Codrington v. People, 57 V.I. 176 (V.I. 2012) and Simmonds v. People, 59 V.I. 480 (V.I. 2013). Thus, the People were not required to initiate the prosecution of the defendant in this case by grand jury indictment. In addition, the Superior Court committed no plain error when it sentenced the defendant as a habitual offender pursuant to 14 V.I.C. §§ 61 and 62 after he failed to file a written response to the habitual offender information filed by the People, which was accompanied with a certified judgment and commitment entered in another Superior Court case approximately four-and-a-half years earlier indicating that he had been convicted of third-degree assault, and his counsel stated on the record that he did not challenge the allegation of this prior conviction. The Superior Court's May 14, 2015 judgment and commitment is affirmed.
Supreme Court Of The Virgin Islands