Alleged human smugglers Lamorthe Delva and Dieuseul Mompremier are scheduled to be sentenced Thursday in the United States Virgin Islands after pleading guilty to being involved in the trafficking operation that left at least eight Haitians dead when their boat ran aground while fleeing authorities in this territory’s waters in 2010.
Messrs. Mompremier and Delva, who are Haitian, pleaded guilty in June in US Federal Court to conspiring to smuggle illegal aliens into the US for financial gain. They were scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 25, but their attorneys made a submission that their early guilty plea should be taken into consideration as a mitigating factor, according to federal court documents.
US Attorney General Ronald Sharpe agreed that the early guilty plea should work in the defendants’ favour for sentencing, and the matter was postponed until today, the documents stated.
The two were accused of waiting in St. Thomas and communicating with alleged co-conspirator Roro Eddoure via telephone while he was travelling there from St. Maarten with a boatful of Haitians.
St. Maarten authorities spotted the boat Jesus La, and the US Coast Guard and BVI Marine Police were dispatched as it fled into VI waters.
Jesus La collided with a reef near Paraquita Bay and capsized, killing at least eight Haitians, including four children.
Mr. Eddoure, who allegedly captained the boat, is serving a 10-year prison sentence in Her Majesty’s Prison in Balsam Ghut. After he serves his time here, he is to face charges in the US as well, police have said.
His alleged crewmember, Renold Plaisimond, was sentenced to six years in prison in this territory, but VI police said in April that US authorities hadn’t charged him because he was just a crewmember.
Messrs. Mompremier and Delva were arrested in April.
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