The United States Third Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the convictions of two notorious gangsters who prosecutors said terrorized the Virgin Islands for nearly a decade, according to a ruling issued Tuesday.
The court declined to overturn the convictions of Paul Girard and Kareem Harry, both 38, who had been found guilty in 2022 of racketeering-related conspiracy, murder, kidnapping, illegal use of a firearm, and more. In 2024, Harry was sentenced to life in prison plus 20 years and Girard to life in prison plus 47 years. Seven others were convicted in connection with the criminal conspiracy and were sentenced to between 36 months in prison and 25 years. Another man convicted in connection with the crimes was sentenced to life plus 30 years.
Girard, also known as Bogus, and Harry, also known as Crumbull, appealed their convictions, claiming COVID-era limitations on courtroom audience attendance infringed on their constitutional rights to a public trial. They also claimed prosecutors had mishandled the Fifth Amendment invocations of two potential witnesses.
Initially, the federal judge assigned to the case had barred all in-person spectators to the 2021 trial, citing concerns about the spread of deadly COVID-19. Instead, an overflow room was designated where an audience could watch the proceedings from a distance via a video link, according to court records.
Girard and Harry wanted their mothers present for moral support, and the judge acquiesced, allowing limited seating in the courtroom on the second day of the trial. Even then, for unknown reasons, the mothers were prevented from accessing the courtroom, according to court records.
Girard’s mother told the court that federal marshals had barred her and Harry’s mother from the courtroom for unknown reasons for all but the last few days of the trial.
The convicted murderers complained to the District Court judge that this was a violation of their Sixth Amendment rights to a public trial. The judge disagreed and declined their request for a new trial.
The appeals court agreed, in part, that the District Court bungled efforts to balance protecting public safety and protecting the accused’s rights to a public trial. But, the appeals court said, the men’s attorneys had failed to make adequate arguments about that at the time and, even if they had, it would not rise to the level of declaring a mistrial.
“Harry concedes that he did not object contemporaneously to the errors he claims on appeal. And the closest Girard came to objecting was between jury selection and opening arguments, when his lawyer asked the District Court to allow Girard’s family into the courtroom ‘to comply with the Constitution’ and so they could give’“moral support,’” the appeals court judges wrote. “That is not enough to preserve a public-trial argument challenging the District Court’s requirement that all spectators watch from the overflow room. Parties must present arguments ‘squarely,’ so the district court has a chance to resolve them in the first instance.”
The appeals court found, despite the error, the men had not been discriminated against.
“The first-day closure that the District Court ordered was not designed for secrecy. It was a good-faith effort to protect the participants from COVID-19 during the pandemic – a laudable measure that was erroneous only because the Court neglected to consider an alternative. Also in the trial judge’s defense, he was unaware that Defendants’ mothers were being excluded once the courtroom was open to spectators, and he remedied the problem as soon as defense counsel made the Court aware of it,” the judges wrote. “By contrast, the costs of retrying Harry and Girard would be significant.”
Girard and Harry also contended that prosecutors improperly met with two of their fellow defendants – Shaquille Correa and James Cruz, who were later sentenced to 17 years and 12 years, respectively. They claimed the meeting resulted in Correa and Cruz not testifying, proclaiming their intention to plead the Fifth Amendment to all questions in the case.
Girard and Harry said Correa and Cruz should have been required to plead the Fifth to each question asked in open court, not simply state a blanket intention outside court.
Again, the appeals court agreed in part, saying they preferred question-by-question invocations of the Fifth Amendment because it allowed the trial judge to determine whether it was allowed in each circumstance. But, because there were no contemporaneous objections, neither the District Court judge nor the Appeals Court had a framework to work from.
Finally, Girard and Harry had claimed seven other witnesses were blocked from testifying. The Appeals Court found one of these would-be witnesses had intended to plead the Fifth Amendment to each question and the six others had been ruled as irrelevant to the case.
“The Paul Girard criminal enterprise was a vicious and lawless gang that terrorized and victimized the people of the Virgin Islands for years,” then-U. S. Attorney for the U.S. Virgin Islands Delia Smith said in 2022.
“Murders, robberies, assaults, gun violence, kidnappings, all ordered by Girard while he was incarcerated. Many lives have been affected by this senseless violence, but the life sentences issued by the court send a strong message that our system of justice works, and anyone who commits these heinous crimes will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Smith said after Girard was sentenced.
Girard was being held at the supermax prison USP Florence ADMAX in Florence, Colorado. Harry was at the USP Coleman high-security penitentiary in Sumterville, Florida.
