Sentencing delayed in Virgin Islands murder

The scheduled sentencing for three U.S. Virgin Islands men convicted in the 2007 murder of a Bucks County man was continued yesterday.

The attorney for Jahlil Deshay Ward, who was found guilty of first-degree murder of 21-year-old Jamie Cockayne of New Hope, filed a motion for acquittal, according to a spokesman for the territorial Attorney General's Office.

Judge Brenda Hollar also reduced some counts of third-degree assault for codefendants Kamal "Six Pack" Thomas and Anselmo Ricardo Boston to simple assault.

Cockayne was stabbed to death on June 19, 2007, after he left a bar in Cruz Bay, St. John. A former New Hope-Solebury High School lacrosse player, Cockayne was on St. John with his mother awaiting work papers to start a job at a yacht club in the British Virgin Islands.

- Mari A. Schaefer