A Word About the Murder of Jamie Cockayne

i live in the virgin islands but i was not born here, i do consisder st.thomas my home. i'm sadden by reading most of the blogs about Jamie Cockayne. yes here in the virgin islands we have problems like any other place under the US flag but we also have very good things going on here as well. i am so sorry that this STUPID ACT OF VIOLENCE has happened againsted Jamie. in most of the blogs i have read one side says corruption ,the other side says drugs. but please take this to heart their are many people here that do call, write, e-mail even try to see the Gonvernor in person. many of use do cry outloud for things to change. now that we are under the magnify glass it comes across as if we are crasy idiots runing amuk. that is not the case. i invite you as well as any body else to visit the virgin islands, and see for yourself that here it is not that bad off

obviously, the family has been off tv for a day, so they need the spotlight put back on them again, instead of on the facts of the case and the three arrests made... self-proclaimed martyrs LOVE the cameras!

when your family member or son is murdered you can sit in judgement. We write because we darn well want to and believe a great wrong must be righted.

Capice?

To the a-hole that is suggesting that the Cockayne family are camera-hungry "martyrs."

Let me explain this to you slowly so your little brain can handle it. There's this thing called the media, see? And when the media turns its spotlight on an issue, it makes everybody nervous and they start scrambling. Still with me? Now, the cops in the VI weren't doing anything to investigate the murder of Jamie. That's not surprising, because there are a growing number of unsolved murders down there. Unsolved...that means that the killers were never caught, OK? The Cockayne's knew that if they talked to the media, the cops would have to get off their butts and actually try to find their son's killers. And guess what? It worked! The day CNN showed up on St. John, the cops arrested someone. So what have we learned? We've learned that if the media stays interested, the people in charge in the VI will keep doing their jobs.

There's more to the story. There's this awful judge who doesn't like to put the bad guys in jail. But we'll save that for another time. I think you've had enough for one day. So go take yourself a nap and when you wake up we'll have milk and cookies.

Oh my Goodness, to clarify some or your stupidity, an arrest was made the day CNN came to the island, however before any of the authorities even knew they were here. We are not as bad as you people are portraying us to be. Here's a ole wifes tale "clean up your own back yard before you clean up any others" Philly is poisoned with corruption, violence and murder, oh yes murder, and you never here Nancy Grace or Robin Meade or which ever one of the losers bashing the over populated disgraceful rotten Philadelphia.

FYI= just about every morning I look out my office window and witness tons of Safari's packed with tourist and their luggage, coming for a week or even two, in our beautiful unstoppable tranquil Virgin Islands. One thing you'll learn about us Virgin Islanders, we stick together (black, white, hispanic, whatever) in times like these, and we will over come all the negativitiy you people cast on us, simply because we can. We are virgin islanders baby! Beautiful scenes, beautiful places, and most of all Beautiful people!

Come to my Virgin Islands, you can't knock it if you never tried it!!!

I have to say that was very well put and I agree with you 100%. St John is a beautiful place. I am 19 and have live on st john forever. The crime and such is the same as everywhere else. I do have sympathy to the cockaynes loss but I find it ridiculouse how people who have never even been to the V.I. are completely bashing and bad talking us. It is completely unfair. When a murder happens up in the states yall dont hear us bashing your people like you guys up in the states have been bashing us it is just completely out of hand.... so for yalls info we would really apreciate it if you would just stop the nonsence and go on with your lives instead of finding ways to make us look horrible we are just the same kind of people as up in the states the only differences are is that we dont make a scene if someone gets murdered somewhere stateside we dont make false assumptions about they people in the community in which the murder took place and we live on such a beautiful islad. Thats the difference. I do again show much sympathy for the family but all the rest of you please get something better to do with your free time then to try to break the people of the USVI becaus we are actual humans too not just some criminals. One last thing I would like to say. How is this anything like Natalie halloway? Yea jamie was "drunk" but he didnt leave the bar with a bunch of men that he didnt know. He left the bar ALONE and as a fact he was found. Nataliee has not. It was a murder yes those happen everywhere not just here.

It would appear from the outside that justice is not served. Indeed this is true. A case with so many facets is often not solved in a few weeks. The investigators will need to speak with people who had been in contact and known both the victim and the accused. Having been a resident of the Virgin Islands for 15 years, I have had the opportunity of seeing many such actions of this sort in the past. The character of the accused will come out in the investigation as soon as the people who know them feel comfortable talking to the authorities. This also stands true for the people who may have known the victim. The true character of the victim will become evident as people feel more comfortable speaking to the authorities. I am not about to pass judgment on the victim. But In my experience in matters of this sort I have found that the victim is often an antagonist in his own demise. I have many friends here and I myself frequent these same places with the same people. The people that I know who get into arguments and fights in drinking places all share one common characteristic. They cannot control their tempers when they drink alcohol, and they often get into arguments while intoxicated. While this does not justify the killing of a human being, intelligence and self control have helped myself and my friends to avoid situations like this one.

Well after much research this weekend, I have found that "Captain Cocaine" may have been involved in some illegal activities. There have been references to him trying to start his own dealing ring. I have many friends both on St. Thomas and on St. John. Some of my friends own businesses in St. John and are familiar with Jamie. The Front Yard bar is known as a drug bar, and a place to find dealers. I, like many of my friends are well aware of this fact, and we avoid such places. I am very certain that there are known drug bars in and around Philly also. My references to his demise did in no way relate to his use of alcohol. Let everyone find out all the facts in this case before anyone is declared innocent. I believe that there is a great deal more to be learned about the victim. Due to the nature of the answers I also feel that people who have the answers will be reluctant to give them to the authorities. Doing so would expose these people to misdemeanor and or criminal charges. In short, the people who know what really happened are Jamie’s close friends that he partied with in St. John.

Ok you idiots, just so you know, our little town of New Hope, is not Philadelphia. Jamie did not live in Philly, we live in a little town called New Hope and our town could not be more innocent. So there is no need to compare the murder rate between Philly and St. Johns. Either way, that is all beside the point. Our problem is the crooked police and the ridiculously crooked judge that will be handling the case. No one said that the Virgin Islands is not a beautiful place. Jamie loved it there and was so excited to start working there. We sent our friend off to his dream job and the fact is that he will not be returning to us. The people responsible for this deserve a lot worse than prison. Give me five minutes with them... I'll make sure they suffer every second of it. So, stop preaching how beautiful your island is, it will be beautiful again once those scumbags are removed from the island.

We know where New Hope is, and you utterly missed the point of what we said. We discussed Philadelphia in some posts because the conversation is germane - murder happens everywhere and people need to step up. We stepped up because some in our group have a personal connection to extended family and we have worked hard for the family to keep the story out there. We assume your tone is not directed towards us whomever you are? That would be very sad indeed....New Hope is indeed bucolic...but vigilante justice? That would accomplish nothing....violence only begets more violence...what is Arlen Specter doing about any of this? Anything at all? We're very curious about THAT.

I meant nothing against you people... I refer to the comments such as:
"Philly is poisoned with corruption, violence and murder, oh yes murder, and you never here Nancy Grace or Robin Meade or which ever one of the losers bashing the over populated disgraceful rotten Philadelphia. "

either way. none of this is important. All we want is justice to be served on the people that were responsible for taking our friends life.

Well, well, well, look what we have here now. A rich white kid, grandson of a politician. Went to sailing school, moves to the Islands and is randomly murdered. The islands see about 40 to 60 murders per year with a population of just over 100,000 people. That is, lets see...50 divided by 100,000 is 0.05% chance of being murdered here. That is 1 in 2,000, what are the stats in your city? We also have a great deal of illegal immigrants floating in here at night by sea. The INS is overwhelmed with enforcement here. So we have an additional burden of violence from these people who are from very poor countries looking for work and not finding it. These illegals are now here, cannot work and are getting hungry for food. Crimes will then be committed in order for these illegals to feed themselves. If you attribute this to some of the murders here, and I cannot state facts, you stand a pretty good chance of not getting murdered here. I have lived here 15 years, and I have never had any one that I new, or even a friend of a friend that was murdered. So how is it that this young energetic white kid nicknamed “Captain Cocaine” http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=52526396 (please see his MySpace site) from a well off town outside of Philly gets himself into a situation that is not so common here? And then how is it that all of a sudden the news is all over the murder of this poor innocent white boy from the states. Where were CNN and Larry King when the preschool girl was missing for days when her partially decomposed body was found stuffed into a plastic crate in an abandoned house near the high school?
http://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/index.pl/article?id=17607349 Is it because the white boys granddaddy knows some people who will “go down there and get things done”?
Sorry for your loss, but please do not think that we here are a bunch of dumb island people. We see what goes on here, and we know how this story will turn out. This murder should not have happened, but do not think that your place is superior to ours.

First off, lets clean the slate of these preposterous accusations of Jamie being a drug dealer. Is is just simply a false statement. Jamie was brutally murdered that night and there is no justification for that. This was not a turf war, this was just a murder that was race based.
With the suggestions of knowing where to and where not to be and the analogy of bloods-crips is just humorous. Are you guys fucking stupid?
This was within ten yards of the police dept and considering it is the only police dept. on the entire island of St. John, where would you consider to be safe. At 12:00 at night in St. John, there are more people out then at 12:00 in the afternoon. Jamie was drinking, hanging out and had his car parked within a two minute walk. How is that to be considered a dangerous place. Of course unless the PD in just completely corrupt. Which it clearly is.
Police were notified of there being an altercation with a group of kids and a white boy, the witness stated that they better hurry or else this kids going to get hurt. Where were the police then? Why did it take 15 minutes after 911 being called a reported 10 times for a cop to finally show to the scene. The cop was solo and was driving speed limit and had no lights or sirens on. How do they explain that? With the scene being botched and covered up, its true. Jamie was left there to die and the get away car was off free and with no police cars looking for it.
How do I know all this, ??? Cause I was there!
People should cease their assumptions and negative opinions on what Jamie "might" have been doing that night rather than just simply being outraged and not fighting likes Jamies family is. How can you sleep at night knowing these police are so incapable and furthermore corrupt.
I wonder why almost all drug transactions take place directly in from of the police dept.? Literally, directly in front of it.

Contrast the handling of the Cockayne case with the handling of the Ester Fretts case both on St John and you will understand what a racist environment the USVI really is.

The Senate of the USVI brings Louis Farrakhan in as a motivational speaker and several Senators have had racist rants on the senate floor and no one down here even critisizes them. Check out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpYV3sPPs60

This whole thing is just shameful on both sides of the fence. The Cockayne’s family is just rude about this whole situation. You guys make it seem like the Virgin Islands is some racist place and local’s just preys on white kids. I’ve lived here just about all my life and hang out with both race and have seen it ALL. NEITHER race is better than the other; they both are into some crazy shit. It is unfortunate what happen to Jamie Cockayne and the locals do feel that there is NO excuse for what happened to him (Yes they do). So PLEASE stop making it seem like the locals are siding wrong because we definitely are not. You guys act like this is the only murder that has ever happened here or wherever you live, and things don’t go the way you would like it to go. EVERYDAY they are cases worldwide, where crooked cops are involved. Not saying that there are crooked cops involved in this case, but please don’t throw stones if you live in a glass house. There was a case here on St. Thomas, where this private school rich white kid who dated a black girl that was murdered and he was the last person that was seen with her the night she was murdered (The Green Cay murder). We didn’t make a big deal about race. You guys come here from wherever you come from and think that its “paradise” and you can do whatever you want (things that you wont DEAR doing where you come from) and expect that it’s “paradise” and your invincible. It doesn’t happen that way. The same thing for locals as well; if your into the wrong things and around the wrong company, things are going to happen. It doesn’t matter if it’s in Missouri, California, Cayman Islands, New York, or the Virgin Islands. So everyone needs to stop pointing fingers and just pray for each other, because at the end of the day it’s only one father and he does not sleep. The racist thing has to STOP!!!