Prosecutors looking for alternatives to prosecuting mentally ill murder suspects

Prosecutors are working to find ways to help two people charged with murdering close family members on St. Thomas to receive mental health treatment, rather than continuing to pursue criminal charges in the tragic cases.

The defendants, Mohammed Salem and Anyah Smith, have been jailed since their respective arrests, according to documents filed in V.I. Superior Court. Salem, 34, was arrested on March 5 after police said he stabbed his father, 69-year-old Hakem Salem to death in Estate Lerkenlund, before leading police on a manhunt to Hull Bay, where he was taken into custody.

Salem had a history of mental illness and domestic violence, according to court records, and he was previously arrested for trying to kill his father on March 4, 2018. Smith, 32, was arrested on March 18 and charged with murder in the death of her 9-year-old child, Ja’Qeada Isaac. Police said Smith’s family members alerted them on March 16 that she “may be having a psychotic breakdown, but officers were unable to locate her. Surveillance video from the St. Thomas waterfront showed Smith and her daughter getting into the water, and it appears from evidence collected at the scene that Smith used a cinderblock and a cord to drown the child.