Prosecutors have recommended dismissing charges against two men arrested for the 2022 killings of Stacie Schjang and Arnold Jarvis.
“The interest of Justice would not be served with continued prosecution due to the fact that the People cannot meet its burden of proof at this time, so the charges against both the defendants herein should be dismissed without prejudice,” Assistant Attorney General Kippy Roberson wrote in a filing Wednesday.
Anthony Schneider and Joshawn Ayala were arrested on murder charges in February 2023 in Georgia and extradited to the territory. Both were charged with two counts of first-degree murder and a litany of other assault and firearms-related offenses. Prosecutors this week recommended dismissing the charges without prejudice, meaning they could decide to bring the case again if new evidence came to light.
Schjang was at her Castle Coakley home when people driving nearby began shooting at another car, according to police at the time. A stray bullet came through her bedroom window and killed her instantly. Jarvis — who knew Schjang — was found shot to death a week later on a remote St. Croix beach.
According to prosecutors, Jarvis told law enforcement officers investigating Schjang’s killing that he was bringing Schjang breakfast when his car began taking gunfire, and he kept driving to avoid getting shot. Jarvis identified the shooters as “Ayala them,” according to court documents, and said he knew them from an ongoing feud between residents at the David Hamilton Jackson and John F. Kennedy housing communities. Police determined that the car used by the shooters had been rented by Schneider, and Jarvis identified both to police before he was killed eight days after Schjang.
“Video footage verifies that the Defendants continued to hunt him during those eight days until they were able to kill him so he could not cooperate with law enforcement,” prosecutors wrote.
Assistant Territorial Public Defender Truman Coe, representing Ayala, argued in February that Jarvis’s statements to the police should be excluded on Sixth Amendment grounds, which provides that those accused of crimes have the right to confront witnesses against them. Prosecutors argued that Jarvis was unable to testify because of the defendant’s wrongdoing.
“The Defendant’s actions in killing Mr. Jarvis has made him unavailable to testify in these cases,” Roberson wrote in a March filing opposing the exclusion.
V.I. Superior Court Judge Yvette Ross-Edwards has yet to rule on the motion to dismiss. On a call with the Source Thursday, Chief Conflict Counsel H. Hannibal O’Bryan, who is representing Schneider, said that there’s no statute of limitations for murder and that the defendants could seek to have their cases dismissed entirely.
“Imagine a lifetime of having a case without a statute of limitations hanging over your head — the awesome power of the state can be brought to bear against you, again, after having spent an extended period of time in a detention center,” he said. “Now that doesn’t seem just to me.”
O’Bryan noted that the justice system relies on a presumption of innocence and said attorneys have certain ethical obligations, including those in the Justice Department.
“They have an ethical obligation to look over the evidence to determine whether or not they have sufficient evidence to bring a case,” he said. “And if they don’t, ethics — again — requires them to act appropriately.”
The Source was unable to reach the Justice Department for comment Thursday. O’Bryan questioned whether they expected to acquire new information that would allow them to retry the case in the future.
“Does it get better over time, or worse? We know the answer to that. It gets worse,” he said. “It gets worse for both parties, matter of fact. It’s worse for the defense because of the fact that … whatever witnesses they have, their memories don’t get better as time goes on, and they’re subject to their own mortality. Witnesses pass away, they move away, et cetera — and that’s for both sides, not just one. So we’re not talking about a prejudice that exists on one side or another side.”
