A high school senior mentored at a local auto repair shop has been arrested and charged with stealing his employer's Hummer from a St. Thomas street, according to court documents unsealed Monday.
Elijah Hassell, a senior at Ivanna Eudora Kean High School, was taken into custody at the school on Friday morning. He faces a felony charge of unauthorized use of a vehicle and has been held at the Virgin Islands Bureau of Corrections on $25,000 bail, which he was unable to post.
The Hummer, a gray 2006 H3 valued at roughly $7,000, belonged to Romeo Leader, who owned Leader Auto Repair on Dronningens Gade in Charlotte Amalie. Leader had hired Hassell to work afternoons and weekends at the shop and paid him cash for mentoring.
Leader reported the vehicle missing on the morning of Thursday, October 29, after closing his shop the previous evening. The Hummer had been parked in front of the Sweet & Spicy Lounge nearby, awaiting a replacement rear windshield and air conditioning repairs. Leader had removed the battery for charging and locked the vehicle, though one key remained inside the cabin.
Security footage from the lounge captured a figure in a red hoodie, black shorts and slippers approaching the Hummer shortly after midnight on October 29. The video showed the person opening the driver's side door, popping the hood, and working in the engine compartment for nearly an hour. When a passing car approached, the figure hid in an alleyway before returning to the vehicle. At approximately 1:08 a.m., the Hummer's headlights came on and the vehicle was driven eastward toward Alto Adam Drive.
Both Leader and his wife, Mayard Leader, who was off-island at the time, immediately recognized the suspect's gait, mannerisms and physical build as Hassell when they reviewed the footage.
During an interview with detectives from the Virgin Islands Police Department, Hassell denied knowledge of the missing vehicle, saying he worked his normal shifts on Wednesday and Thursday before walking home. He acknowledged working for Romeo at Leader Auto Repair but offered no explanation for his presence in the surveillance video.
Hassell was scheduled to appear before Magistrate Judge Julie Smith Todman in Superior Court on Monday morning for an advice-of-rights hearing.
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