A 34-year-old groom working the backstretch at Delaware Park was arrested by U.S. Marshals two weeks ago, ending a cross-country manhunt for a man wanted in connection with a Thanksgiving Day shooting more than 1,600 miles away in St. Croix. Dumaray Iles had reportedly been working as a horse handler at the Stanton racetrack when federal agents took him into custody without incident, closing out a search that stretched from the Caribbean to the mid-Atlantic.
According to First State Update, Iles was wanted by the Virgin Islands Police Department on charges of attempted first-degree murder, first-degree assault, and mayhem stemming from a shooting in the Golden Rock area of Christiansted on November 27, 2025. The shooting left two men injured, according to the V.I. Consortium. Under Title 14 of the Virgin Islands Code, mayhem alone carries a statutory penalty of up to 15 years in prison for maliciously disfiguring or maiming another person.
A Six-Month Head Start That Ran Out
Investigators determined that Iles left the Virgin Islands and traveled to Philadelphia in May 2026, roughly six months after the shooting. By August 4, Virgin Islands police had asked the U.S. Marshals Florida/Caribbean Regional Fugitive Task Force for help tracking him down. The search eventually pulled in the Virgin Islands Police Department, Homeland Security Investigations, and Delaware's First State Fugitive Task Force, according to a release from the U.S. Marshals Service.
Federal marshals derived the lead that placed Iles at Delaware Park on September 30, and the Marshals Service in the Virgin Islands reached out to its Delaware counterparts for assistance. The state's First State Fugitive Task Force located him on the racetrack grounds and took him into custody without incident, the same release notes. Kwesi R. Howard, the U.S. Marshal for the District of the Virgin Islands, said those wanted for violent crimes should understand that crossing state lines or traveling thousands of miles will not stop the U.S. Marshals Service from pursuing them.
A Regulatory Paper Trail Months Before the Arrest
Iles had actually crossed paths with Delaware regulators long before marshals showed up. Just weeks after arriving in Philadelphia, he applied for a groom's license at Delaware Park, and on June 26, the Delaware Thoroughbred Racing Commission's Board of Stewards fined him $200 for falsifying that license application by omitting his prior arrest record following an FBI background check, per the Delaware Department of Agriculture. Under commission regulations, all groom and stable license applicants must submit FBI fingerprint background checks and explicitly disclose any arrests, convictions, or probation history.
The fine apparently did not keep him off the backstretch. Delaware Park, founded in 1937 by William du Pont Jr. in Stanton, is the state's only remaining thoroughbred racing venue, running an 85-day live racing season from May through October alongside its 80,000-square-foot casino, roughly 30 miles south of Philadelphia in New Castle County. The Delaware Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association requires grooms living in on-site bunkhouses to hold valid commission credentials and pass daily checkpoints at stable gates, a system meant to keep track of who is working and living on the grounds.
License Pulled, Custody Follows
Two days after marshals arrested him at the track, the racing commission officially rescinded his groom license after track management evicted him from the premises, the agriculture department's stewards log shows. Iles was then remanded to the Howard R. Young Correctional Institution in Wilmington, Delaware's primary Level V facility for adult male pre-trial detainees, where he was held pending extradition to the U.S. Virgin Islands, according to Delaware Department of Correction records. He was later extradited to the territory, according to court records cited by First State Update.
The case illustrates how far federal fugitive task forces now reach to close in on suspects who try to disappear across state and territorial lines. As Hoodline has previously reported, Mid-Atlantic fugitive apprehension increasingly relies on permanent U.S. Marshals task forces that partner with more than 100 federal, state, and local agencies to execute warrants quickly across jurisdictions. First State Update notes that police stories come directly from official sources and that arrested parties should be considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
