Defendant's convictions for voluntary manslaughter as a lesser included offense of first-degree murder, and for reckless endangerment, are reversed because the evidence was insufficient to permit the jury reasonably to find his guilt of the offenses charged beyond a reasonable doubt. The People failed to introduce any evidence that this defendants fired any shots or even possessed a firearm in this crime. The manslaughter conviction could be sustained if the People presented sufficient evidence that defendant aided and abetted someone else in the commission of a murder, showing that defendant knew of the crime and attempted to facilitate it. Here, however, the People failed to prove that he participated in or had the specific intent to facilitate the murder. There was simply no evidence linking him to planning, facilitating, encouraging, or attempting to participate in the murder. The conviction for reckless endangerment also fails for insufficient evidence since it was based on a theory of firing a gun in a public place but there was no evidence indicating that the defendant possessed a firearm or fired any shots The defendant's convictions of the lesser included offense of voluntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment are reversed.
Supreme Court Of The Virgin Islands