Tyley Smith gets 30 years for 2021 murder of St. Croix woman

KINGSHILL — Virgin Islands Attorney General Designee Gordon C. Rhea announced that 35-year-old Tyley Smith was sentenced on September 30, 2024, to thirty years in prison for the June 2021 homicide of 58-year-old Nancy Nieves.

V.I. Superior Court Judge Alphonso G. Andrews, Jr. sentenced Smith, whose attorney had requested a sentence of just ten years. Smith had previously entered a plea to Murder in the Second Degree on July 22, 2024, on the eve of trial. In the early morning hours of June 2, 2021, the body of an unknown woman was found by the side of the road in Estate St. John, St. Croix. Her injuries were so severe that she had to be identified through the use of DNA. Detectives from the Virgin Islands Police Department (VIPD) began the process of gathering evidence. Smith, however, left the Territory shortly after a search warrant was executed at his residence.

A warrant was issued for Smith’s arrest in February of 2022. Law enforcement tracked Smith to Ankeny, Iowa and then to California, where he was captured in April 2022. Evidence against Smith included video of him following Ms. Nieves as she walked along the road, as well as Smith’s DNA under the fingernails of Ms. Nieves.