May 23, 2002 – Derick Hoheb pleaded innocent Thursday to charges that he frequently beat and burned 3-year-old Melea Pownell until the girl died of the abuse earlier this month.
The 25-year-old Paul M. Pearson Gardens resident entered not-guilty pleas to 20 charges including first-degree murder, second-degree murder and multiple counts of child abuse, neglect and assault that stem from the May 10 death of Melea, the daughter of Hoheb's girlfriend, Sylvia Byrd.
Hoheb is being held in jail in lieu of $500,000 bail. The charges state that at various times between November and May, Hoheb punched the girl in the mouth, choked her and on one occasion put a hot cloth on her buttocks, burning her so badly that skin came off on the cloth, according to court papers.
Police say Pownell died on May 10 after Hoheb hit her in the head for playing with her food and on the back after she played with some items on a dressing table. "He said he hit her in the back, knocking the wind out of her," Police Detective Roselyn Bedminster wrote, citing a statement Hoheb gave to police before he was arrested on May 16.
Hoheb is also charged with choking and hitting Pownell's 8-year-old sister on several occasions since November, and on one occasion grabbing the older child by the hair and pounding her head on the floor, the court papers state. Social workers had removed the sister from the home on May 2, after the girl told a teacher that Hoheb had beaten her, according to Bedminster's affidavit.
The social workers were investigating the household before Pownell's death, but they had not yet determined whether Pownell was also in danger and should be removed, Ferryneisa Benjamin, assistant Human Services commissioner, said last week.
Hoheb often baby-sat for the girls at their home in Altona while their mother was working, the court papers state. Byrd has not been charged in the case.
If convicted of the first-degree murder charge, Hoheb would receive a mandatory sentence of life in prison. The attorney appointed by the court to defend him, Marjorie Roberts, has asked to be removed from the case, stating that she is not experienced in criminal matters and that, as the mother of two girls, she has such strong feelings about child abuse that she does not feel she could aggressively defend Hoheb, according to court records.
Territorial Court Judge Ishmael Meyers has not yet acted on Roberts' request or set a trial date.
Hoheb is the second man to be charged in recent months in the Virgin Islands with murder in connection with the beating death of a small child. In March, Vancito Farrington, 32, was charged with killing 2-year-old Rasheem Todman in a home east of Charlotte Amalie. Farrington remains in jail while awaiting trial.

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