Gwinnett cops capture Virgin Islands fugitive

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By Christopher Seward

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A fugitive homicide suspect from the U.S. Virgin Islands was behind bars in the Gwinnett County Detention Center, awaiting extradition Friday.

Gwinnett County Sheriff's Dept., Gwinnett County Sheiff's Dept.

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Jose M. Rivera Jr., who was arrested Friday, is charged with four others in the kidnapping, torture and slaying of a St. Croix police corporal who has been missing since June 2001.

Gwinnett County Sheriff's Department spokesman Lt. Sean Smith said Rivera was arrested at 1 a.m. at his home in the exclusive community of Sugar Hill. Smith could not say how long Rivera had been living in the area.

According to St. Croix police, Cpl. Wendell Williams, who was 49 at the time of his disappearance in 2001, was last seen dropping off a relative at the airport. The 18-year police veteran's burned car was later found nearby, according to The Associated Press.

Williams was never found, and police believe his body never will be recovered.

Police would not provide a motive for Williams’ disappearance, nor would they reveal the suspected role the 39-year-old Rivera and the others played in it.

A Gwinnett County sheriff’s SWAT team descended on Rivera's home Friday, Smith said.

“There was no resistance whatsoever,” the spokesman said. “He was taken without any issue to the Gwinnett County jail and from there he will be extradited back to the Virgin Islands.”

In addition to the Gwinnett County Sheriff's Department, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and FBI agents in Atlanta were involved in the case.

Those arrested in St. Croix were being held in lieu of $1.5 million dollar bail each. They included Sharima Clercent, 32, Jose G. Ventura, 41, Maxililiano Velasquez, 38, and Juan G. Velasquez, 29.

"They had counted on the notion that we had given up," St. Croix Police Chief Christopher Howell told the AP.

The Gwinnett sheriff's spokesman said he did not know when Rivera would be extradited to the island.

-- The Associated Press contributed to this report