Ex-Police Chief Martinez Fights for Shorter Prison Term

Disgraced former Virgin Islands Police Commissioner Ray Martinez is pushing for a much lighter sentence than the decades-long term prosecutors want.

Ex-Police Chief Martinez Fights for Shorter Prison Term

Disgraced former Virgin Islands Police Commissioner Ray Martinez is pushing for a much lighter sentence than the decades-long term prosecutors want, according to WTJX Newsfeed.

Martinez, who was found guilty in December 2025 of bribery, wire fraud, and obstruction tied to a $1.48 million contract, is set to learn his fate on June 9. Federal prosecutors have asked U.S. District Judge Mark Kearney to impose between 24 and 30 years behind bars. Martinez's legal team wants roughly five or six years instead.

The defense's latest filings attack the math behind the recommended punishment. Probation officers pegged the financial harm at $1.07 million, but Martinez's lawyers say that figure ignores work that was actually done. They point to testimony from David Whitaker, the felon-turned-government-witness whose company Mon Ethos Pro Support landed the lucrative deal. Whitaker admitted on the stand that his firm delivered real cybersecurity services, including forensic analysis, GPS instruction, and thermal imaging.

Using a Third Circuit precedent, the defense says losses should only cover what the government paid above fair market value. By that standard, they argue, the real damage is just $110,000 from two padded invoices.

Martinez's attorneys also take aim at extra penalties tacked onto the guidelines calculation. They reject a leadership enhancement, saying co-defendant Jenifer O'Neal, the former budget director, acted on her own rather than under Martinez's direction. They also call an obstruction boost unfair double punishment, since Martinez already stands convicted of separate obstruction crimes for shredding devices and fabricating a backdated record.

The team further notes that Martinez has a completely clean record, with zero prior run-ins with the law. If the court accepts all their arguments, they say the guideline range drops to about six-and-a-half to eight years.

Finally, the defense criticizes how the presentence report compared Martinez's case. The report used money laundering data to arrive at a median sentence of over 16 years, but Martinez's lawyers say bribery cases are the proper benchmark. At the corrected level, they claim, recent national figures show an average punishment of around four and a half years for comparable offenders.

Source: Google News VI — Crime