TRENTON – Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa announced that a Camden County man was convicted at trial today of illegally possessing three handguns, a tear gas pen gun, cocaine and prescription drugs.
Reginald V. Brown, 36, of Lawnside, was found guilty by a Camden County jury of all five counts against him in a May 2012 indictment, following a trial before Superior Court Judge Irvin J. Snyder. He was found guilty of second-degree possession of a gun as a convicted felon, second-degree possession of a gun while committing a drug offense, second-degree possession of the narcotic painkiller oxycodone with intent to distribute, third-degree possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, and third-degree possession of the prescription anti-anxiety drug Xanax with intent to distribute.
Deputy Attorney General Erik Daab tried the case for the Division of Criminal Justice Gangs & Organized Crime Bureau. The charges resulted from an investigation conducted by the New Jersey State Police, with assistance from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Brown faces a sentence of five to 10 years in state prison on each of the second-degree charges, and sentences of three to five years in prison on the third-degree charges. Because of Brown’s prior felony convictions, he is subject to extended sentences. He faces a mandatory minimum of five years without parole on the charge of possession of a gun a convicted felon, and a mandatory consecutive sentence on the charge of possession of a gun while committing a drug offense. He also could face consecutive sentences on the other charges. Judge Snyder scheduled Brown for sentencing on March 22.
State Police detectives obtained a search warrant for Brown’s residence on Gloucester Avenue in Lawnside and a seizure order for his 2004 Volvo XC90 after securing evidence that Brown was selling cocaine. Brown was arrested on Oct. 18, 2011, when detectives executed the search warrant. Inside the master bedroom of the residence, they located a cooler pack that contained two .25-caliber Astra semi-automatic pistols, a .22-caliber Rossi revolver, and .38-caliber tear gas pen gun. The pen gun contained a rifle bullet. The cooler also contained two small baggies of cocaine, hundreds of oxycodone pills, and 33 Xanax pills. In addition, the detectives found crack cocaine in Brown’s bedroom.
The investigation was conducted for the New Jersey State Police by Detective Michael Davis, who was lead detective, Detective Keith Lawyer, Detective Dorothy Quinn and Sgt. Salvator DiPaola. They were assisted by Special Agent Dan Brown of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
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