Bucks woman goes to islands for trial in son's death

The trial of three men accused in the slaying of her son was approaching, and Jean Cockayne was not sure she could make the painful trip back to the U.S. Virgin Islands for the proceedings.

But when the proceedings start Monday, Cockayne will be there.

"I know it's going to be 'blame the victim,' " said Cockayne, who flew to the Virgin Islands on Wednesday. "I didn't know if I was going to be strong enough to sit through that."

Jamie Cockayne, 21, of New Hope, was stabbed to death on June 19, 2007, after he left a bar in Cruz Bay on St. John. In the months after her son's death, Cockayne criticized police and the territorial Attorney General's Office for how they handled the case. She appealed through local and national media for more action in what appeared to her to be a slow-moving prosecution.

The sense that her son would want her there, and the support of family and friends, helped Cockayne make the decision, she said. She went to the Virgin Islands with her husband, Bill; son Jeff; and a handful of other relatives.

Kamal "Six Pack" Thomas, Anselmo Ricardo Boston, and Jahlil Deshay Ward are charged with first-degree murder.

A former New Hope-Solebury High School lacrosse player who dreamed of a sailing career, Jaime Cockayne was on St. John with his mother, waiting for work papers to start a job at a yacht club in the British Virgin Islands.

Bored with spending nights at home, Jamie Cockayne went out drinking, his mother has said.

According to police reports, Jamie Cockayne might have kicked a Jeep belonging to the girlfriend of Boston. Later that night, he ran into Boston at the Front Yard bar. According to witnesses, the two exchanged words and Boston allegedly hit Jamie Cockayne with a pool stick. They and Thomas were asked to leave.

In an affidavit from August 2007, Thomas told detectives that he and the others stood around for about 15 minutes, "then 'Selmo' [Boston], another guy and [Thomas] ran up the hill, chasing the white guy." When they rushed him, Jamie Cockayne "broke a bottle and braced himself for a beating."

Witnesses told police that they heard an argument behind a wall near a laundry and heard someone say, "Why don't you just go ahead and kill me then?"

They said they saw one man run to a car, where another man was waiting. The two drove off. Moments later, a wounded Cockayne staggered from behind the wall and collapsed. He died a short time later.

Boston told police, according to the affidavit, that he struck "the white guy in the shoulder and neck areas" with a pool stick while in the bar. He contradicted Thomas and said they went in opposite directions when they left the bar.

"It is our position the real killer will be in the courtroom, but it will not be Kamal," said Michael Joseph, Thomas' public defender.

Joseph said he told prosecutors in May 2008 that, on the night of the killing, Ward visited a friend, Glanville "Shark" Frazer, who lived "a stone's throw away" from where Cockayne was killed.

Frazer, according to court documents, was home in bed with his girlfriend, Ward's cousin, when he heard knocking on the door. He said that when he opened the door he found Ward shirtless and with small blood spots on his pants.

"Shark, Shark, can you give me a ride home, please? I just [beat up] a white boy," Ward said, according to the documents.

Joseph said Ward had been sent to Florida by authorities for his own protection after he had testified in an unrelated murder case. Unaware that he was being cast as the murder suspect, Ward returned to the island for a carnival. He was arrested at the airport in June 2008.

Ben Currence, Boston's court-appointed attorney, also disputes the government's timeline of events and what happened. He said that although there was a bar fight, his client "was at home with his girlfriend and roommate" when Cockayne was killed.

"We have a guy [Ward] saying, 'I did it,' " Currence said. The three suspects do not get along, Currence said, adding, "I don't see them doing anything in concert."

Ward's attorney, Michael Quinn, declined to comment.

Virgin Islands Attorney General Vincent Frazer did not return phone calls.

Jean Cockayne said the time since her son's death had been difficult.

"I can't resume my life as it was," she said. What she enjoyed doing before - yoga, tennis, sailing, eating out - has been put on hold. She couldn't even bring herself to return to the same beauty salon. "You just feel you have to change things," she said.

Jean Cockayne said she does not have the same anger that she had in the months after the killing. After the trial, she plans to "mourn the loss of Jamie and know I have done everything I can," she said.

She hopes for a guilty verdict and steels herself against the thought of an acquittal.

"I don't know where that will leave me, but it won't be in a good place," she said. "That would be like having Jamie murdered all over again."