The man from Atlantic City has a long past of gun and drug crimes. On Friday, he was ordered to jail on drug charges.
The charges say that Zaahir Reaves was caught last week near the Atlantic City Public Library with 16 grams of crack cocaine and 50 wax layers of fentanyl/heroin.
A search order that was issued for him a few days earlier led to charges of having drug paraphernalia.
Chief Assistant Prosecutor Allison Eiselen told the court that what was on Reaves’ phone was what really worried them. She showed the court pictures of what she said were Reaves holding guns, including one with a big magazine.
Durann Neil, the defense lawyer, told the judge, “I don’t see the relevance.”
He said that Reaves is not being charged with gun crimes, but he probably would be if there was direct proof that the pictures show his client with real guns.
“It’s just a trick to make your honor think my client is dangerous,” he said.
“Even though they aren’t charged with gun crimes, they do show how dangerous this defendant is because they have always been convicted criminals who aren’t allowed to have guns,” Eiselen said.
Then she went over Reaves’ criminal past going back to when he was 14. Before going into the Atlantic County Civil Courthouse in Atlantic City on June 12, 2015, she hid a stun gun in a bush.
Three months later, a city cab driver was attacked and hurt, breaking his collarbone and getting cuts on his knee and chest.
After that, Reaves was charged with shooting someone on October 18, 2016, which hit a jitney. Only one person was hurt by broken glass; no one was shot.
Four months after that, he was charged with killing someone near the Uptown School Complex. Eiselen said that all of them finished with juvenile judgments.
After turning 18, Reaves admitted that he stabbed a guy who was buying drugs from him on April 14, 2019. this was second-degree aggravated assault.
He got four years in jail because of the No Early Release Act.
He was on parole at the time, and a woman told police that he pointed a gun at her and said he would shoot her.
Court records show that he pleaded guilty to assaulting a person in an unruly manner and was not sent to jail.
Neil made it clear that his client is not being charged with a violent crime. He also said that the drug charges are likely to be dropped to mere possession.
He also said that there is no chance that Reaves will not show up.
The public safety assessment that is used to help decide if a defendant should be held on bail reform recommended that they be freed on bail and given weekly reports. Eiselen pointed out that the numbers don’t take into account youth records.
Judge Jorge Coombs agreed that Reaves’ past crimes and the fact that he was still breaking the law were very worrying.
He told the jail to hold him on Friday, so Reaves spent his 25th birthday in jail on Saturday.
