**UPDATE** A beautiful message from Jamie's mom. An excerpt will be posted, and we should abide by a mother's wishes to finally be able to find peace and grieve for her son:

Good morning Melody, As in the past, if called upon, I will speak out honestly regarding my feelings. I will not go back and revisit the issues I had with the police during the investigation. I believe that would be counter productive at this point. What is important is a guilty verdict, a life in prison sentence for Ward. Now we can only wait to see the length of incarceration Kamal and Boston receive for the brutal beating Jamie received, which led to his murder.

Communication is key in these situations and until the Justice Department hired their Public Relations Officer this past spring, communication did not exist....There were multitudes of local people that pleaded with us to fight until the end, to use any means to receive Justice for Jamie.

My thanks to Renee Gumbs-Carty and the jury for their time and efforts.

As to the prosecution and conviction rate, I will leave that to you to revisit. The last I read there have been more than 30 homicides in the VI in 2008. My fight is over, yours has just begun....This started with my son Jamie but during the past year and a half it became a fight we raged for all victims on St. John. I do hope the bad people will think twice from now on and realize that once in a great while, Justice will prevail.

I thank the witnesses and prosecution for their bravery and sense of citizenship.

Now please allow me to rest, Jeanie Cockayne

Amen to that.

Original parts of this particular post:
**UPDATE 10/12/08**: Another e-mail from the VI PD PIO:

Melody
dateSat, Oct 11, 2008 at 8:54 PM
subjectRe: James "Jamie" Cockayne
hide details 8:54 PM (14 hours ago) Reply

Thank you, if you would correct the young lady's name I would appreciate it. I should have looked it up. I meant no disrespect by my spelling of the name. The young lady is still missing and her loved ones still have hope. I Thank you in advance if you would assist me with this.

As for speaking out, it is difficult for police to make definitive statements regarding an ongoing investigation. I am sure you followed the events leading up to the trial and saw that a third suspect was not named until much later. The police report what was found at the scenes and in the interviews; however once the Justice Department begins to examine the evidence things may change. Once the defense attorneys begin their investigations and earn the trust of their clients, even more information may be revealed. So in the early stages making definitive comments could have been counter productive and could possibly have jeopardized the case. Basically the situation can remain fluid until the jury makes a decision.

Every homicide case brought to trial in the past two years have resulted in guilty verdicts in the VI. I say the last two years because I have only been on this job for less then a year and have only researched statistics for the last two years. Each trial has taken an average of one year to be heard in front of the jury. I find the VIPD to be very deliberative in making arrests, especially when it comes to murder cases. They generally do not make an arrest until they are certain that arrest will result in a conviction. In the case of Jamie, we are all satisfied that justice was served.

I do not mean to stir up any bad feelings among friends of the deceased, I only ask that the verdict be given at least half as much publicity as the events leading up to it.

Respectfully
Melody Rames

What did they say to the man from Chicago who was beaten to a pulp a couple of years ago? Or other crime victims? Don Calloway on August 10, 2006? http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/cgi-script/csArticles/articles/000030/003096.htm

One thing that became abundantly clear with the murder of Jamie Cockayne was that there were problems in paradise. What has transpired will make those of us stateside forevermore question the safety of an Island paradise that is technically in the United States. And that is the problem they have, unfortunately: it's not like the murder of Jamie Cockayne was an isolated issue.

ORIGINAL POST

A case that was followed on this website involved the murder of a 21 year old boy named Jamie Cockayne, who happened to be a first cousin of a friend of mine. Jamie had many family members along the Main Line and in Bucks County as well. Apparently, a decision has been reached in the court case...finally...

Jamie, way back when, was brutally murdered and left to die on a street on St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Jamie was murdered within a few hundred feet of a police station, or mini police station. What followed was absolute outrage and a very slow process where Jamie's parents were ignored by public officials and by various media reports threatened.

Time dragged on and on and on. It shed an unplesant light on an island "paradise" under the jurisdiction of the United States Government. It shed an unpleasant light on a whole lot of problems in a prime tourist area. And that is the truth and was played out in multiple media outlets in the U.S. Virgin Islands and stateside. People called for boycotts until the murder was solved. After Natalee Holloway and that guy from I think Chicago who was beaten to a pulp while vacationing in the Virgin Islands.

Here are some previous stories:
Mother Seeks Justice In Son's Virgin Islands Slaying
Family Claims Police Corruption
POSTED: 4:20 pm EDT July 30, 2007
Will There Be Justice For Jamie Cockayne?

AG Attorney general defends actions
By RILEY YATES The Intelligencer

So apparently, justice of some sort has been served. I have not heard from any family members I know to see how they feel, but a rather interesting e-mail came to - we are publiching in it's entirety. The sender claims to be the Public Information Officer of the VI Police Department. Apparently now that the case is over, they want to talk about this case? Well, people out there can draw their own conclusions:

fromMelody
toSan Juan Bureau ,
,
AP writer Dave McFadden ,
Jon Schweitzer ,
,
,
,

dateSat, Oct 11, 2008 at 5:15 PM
subjectJames "Jamie" Cockayne

Hello,

The Jamie Cockayne case made national news and garnered the Virgin Islands as a whole, the VI police Department and the VI Government a lot of negative publicity. Many organizations and individuals made negative statements and even made acccusations based on the race of the victim, the suspects and the majority of the population of the Virgin Islands as a whole.

The police were portrayed as incompetent, the government inept, they accused the police of bungling evidence. The story ran on dozens of blogs and newspapers made CNN and Larry King live.

Friday all three defendants were found guilty. One for murder first and the other two for assault first. Would you be willing to do a story for the national news regarding the verdict? Our biggest detractors, speaking out in the wake of the Natalie Holland disappearance, were all over the airways calling for a boycott of travelers to the Virgin Islands.

If you need to talk to the governor, the police commissioner or anyone else I can assist you. Please contact me as soon as it is convenient.

Here are the links to the local stories:
http://www.onepaper.com/stcroixvi/?v=d&i=&s=News:Local&p=1222834257
http://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/index.pl/article_home?id=17629401

Thanks
Melody Rames
VI Police Department PIO
340-690-1741
340-6437728

Here are some other stories:

One suspect guilty of murder in stabbing
By Mari A. Schaefer
Inquirer Staff Writer

A U.S. Virgin Islands jury found one man guilty of first-degree murder yesterday in the stabbing death of a Bucks County man, and two other defendants guilty of lesser charges.
Jahlil Deshay Ward will face a mandatory sentence of life without parole in the death of 21-year-old Jamie Cockayne of New Hope. Codefendants Kamal "Six Pack" Thomas and Anselmo Ricardo Boston were found guilty of two counts of third-degree assault. Sentencing will be Nov. 14.

"They got the guy that murdered Jamie," Bill Cockayne, the victim's father, said from the Virgin Islands. He said the prosecution never had the evidence to show that Boston and Thomas were also guilty of the more serious charges. "Certainly, in my own heart I believe they were all involved," he said.

Jamie Cockayne was stabbed to death on June 19, 2007, after he left a bar in Cruz Bay, St. John.

Cockayne murder trial begins Monday
Three are accused of killing a New Hope man in the Virgin Islands.
By Steve Sherman, BucksLocalNews.com

Ward To Spend Life Behind Bars for Cockayne Murder
by Ananta Pancham