One day after a defendant in a kidnapping trial was shot and killed on his way to court, a Superior Court judge declared a mistrial and dismissed jurors in the midst of deliberations.
The court’s action took prosecutors by surprise, said the chief of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. Hours after the court’s order was issued, Criminal Chief Timothy Perry said a new trial would be sought “hopefully soon.”
Perry called Thursday’s killing of a defendant in the midst of an active trial an execution.
Superior Court Judge Denise Francois on Friday granted an emergency motion filed by attorney Robert Leycock, Jr., representing Troy Harrigan, codefendant of Desie C. Henry Jr. Henry was shot near the Paul M. Pearson Garden Housing Community.
Police and emergency medical technicians on the scene declared the defendant deceased. A homicide investigation is now underway, according to a statement posted on the VIPD Facebook page.
Francois’ Friday morning order cited Henry’s death as the reason for canceling the trial. “Having received the motion and under the circumstances (the murder of co-Defendant Desie C. Henry, Jr. at about 8:43 a.m. on March 5, 2026, before the jury began its deliberations), the Court finds that there is no alternative but to declare a mistrial for reasons of manifest necessity and to dismiss the jury,” Francois said.
Speaking to a reporter later in the day, Perry said prosecutors were surprised because jurors had already spent hours in deliberations. “But the judge determined that because the codefendant had been killed in so shocking fashion that the jury wouldn’t be able to reach a fair and impartial verdict with respect to the remaining defendant,” he said.
“So, the case is mistried; it is not dismissed. There remain active charges against the remaining defendant,” Perry said. “We expect this matter will come back up for trial, and it is not the standard of justice in the Virgin Islands that a trial can be disrupted through extrajudicial acts like the murder of this young man.”
The Justice official pointed out that the kidnapping trial that began March 2 marked the third attempt to hold Harrigan and Henry accountable for their alleged actions on Sept. 13-14, 2020. Charges related to that incident are contained in the Seventh Amended Information filed by the Justice Department.
Investigators say that was the time when Percival Pringle was lured into a secluded location, captured, bound with chains, beaten and tortured by the two defendants.
Those actions were taken, Perry said, in order to force Pringle to turn over drug money. In closing arguments heard Wednesday afternoon, defense attorney Leycock said Harrigan — his client — was not involved in a classic kidnapping. “This was not a kidnapping; this was a debt collection,” Harrigan’s lawyer said.
While delivering his closing remarks, Assistant Attorney General Jeremy Weddle displayed photo evidence showing the waist and ankle chains lying on a stretcher in the back of an ambulance with the victim — chains that EMTs testified were stained with blood.
“Fact after fact shows that he was kidnapped and tortured by these men,” Weddle said. “The victim said he was held for two days, bound in chains, prevented from leaving and he testified how he saw his abductors produce a handgun which they threatened him with,” the prosecutor said.
There was also testimony from Pringle on the witness stand about calls that were made during his captivity, attempting to extract payment of the $800,000 captors believed the victim had access to.
The criminal chief said there is sufficient evidence, statements and forensic test results to take the matter back into court as soon as a date can be set for a new trial for surviving defendant Harrigan.
