A St. Thomas man is in custody following his arrest on multiple felony charges connected to a violent assault on his teenage daughter that unfolded over several hours on Tuesday.
Carl T. Burley was taken into custody Tuesday afternoon at the Oswald Harris Court housing complex. He appeared before Superior Court Magistrate Judge Simone M. VanHolten-Turnbull on Wednesday morning. Prosecutors charged him with second-degree assault, third-degree assault, two counts of aggravated assault and battery, aggravated child abuse and neglect, and disturbance of the peace.
Police arrived at the housing complex around 1:36 p.m. in response to a report of a domestic disturbance. According to a police affidavit, the teenager told investigators that her father became enraged after discovering she had a cell phone that a friend had given her. Burley, who objected to his daughter having the device, struck her across the left cheek, grabbed her by the face, and demanded to know where it came from.
As the girl fell and tried to protect herself, Burley punched her legs, seized her by the hair, and dragged her from her bedroom to the living room, causing carpet burns. Once there, he placed his foot on her neck and pinned her to the floor while slapping her face repeatedly. The teenager told investigators the pressure left her unable to breathe and she nearly lost consciousness.
Burley then ordered his wife to fetch a suitcase and gloves from the bedroom. When she refused, he retrieved the suitcase himself, forced his screaming daughter inside, and tried to zip it shut. He then grabbed a white plastic trash bag and attempted to pull it over her head. The teenager managed to tear the bag apart while fighting for air.
Burley struck her multiple times on the upper arm with a wooden stick. When the girl's mother tried to stop the assault, Burley turned on his wife and began strangling her.
The attack paused only because the mother and daughter had to leave for a disciplinary meeting at Ivanna Eudora Kean High School. When they returned that afternoon, Burley confronted his daughter again about the phone. During the argument, he smashed an Android cell phone into her mouth, splitting her upper lip, then took the device.
The teenager called 911. When an uncle warned Burley that police were coming, he made his injured daughter wash up, change her shirt, and hide in a vacant ground-floor apartment while he kept watch outside. Officers found her visibly trembling, weeping, and afraid. Police documented facial abrasions, upper arm bruising, hand abrasions, a swollen mouth, and a thumb contusion. Forensics technicians photographed her injuries and recovered the suitcase, stick, and torn clothing.
Burley was arrested at the scene and held at the Virgin Islands Bureau of Corrections.
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