Judge reverses decision, orders defendant to jail

A New Kent Circuit Court judge has reversed his decision allowing a convicted felon to remain free on bond, four days after a jury found the defendant guilty of grand larceny of a firearm.

A jury found Joseph M. Moseley II, 43, of 25 Moorings Road in Dendron, Va., guilty of the gun theft following a Jan. 28 trial. Last July 17, Moseley stole a firearm belonging to Troy Leber. The jury, meanwhile, recommended a four-year prison term.

Moseley had been free on bond leading up to the trial, and Judge Thomas B. Hoover agreed to allow the defendant to remain out of jail until formal sentencing, which is scheduled for later this month. But Hoover had a change of heart on Feb. 1 when Moseley appeared back before the judge on a separate charge of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. The reversal came much to the defendant’s dismay.

“I made an error on Monday,” Hoover said, pointing to his decision to allow Moseley to remain free on $10,000 bond and noting that the defendant has five previous felony convictions.

“I’m not comfortable with it, Mr. Moseley. I’m sorry,” he told the defendant.

Defense attorney Todd Duval pleaded with the judge to allow his client to remain out on bond, saying Moseley has no record of failure to appear in court.

“He’s trying to earn as much money as he can for his wife. He knows he’s going to jail,” Duval told Hoover.

The judge, however, ordered Moseley held and refused to lower the bond or permit work release.

“This is a defendant with five felonies, he stole a gun, he tried to obtain another gun, and he admits he violated a protective order,” Hoover said.

“He faces a four-year sentence,” the judge went on. “That’s a significant amount of time, and I can’t take a chance on him not showing up.”

In another, unrelated case on Feb. 1, Hoover found a Charles City County man guilty of one count of possessing cocaine with intent to distribute.

Ray Linwood Brown Sr., 31, of 8701 Adkins Road, was charged last July 24 after a State Police trooper at a traffic checkpoint discovered Brown was carrying 30 small bags each containing a cocaine rock. Brown was searched after he could not produce registration for the Jeep Cherokee he was driving. He also changed his story regarding who owned the vehicle.

Senior Trooper Phillip Hunt found the 30 individually wrapped rocks inside a large plastic bag that the defendant had stuffed into his pants pocket. Hunt and a State Police special agent testified Brown told them about buying at least 10 times over the past month from a supplier in Williamsburg and selling the drugs on a regular basis to four customers, whom he named, in Charles City.

Defense attorney John McGarvey attempted to have 25 of the individual bags thrown out as evidence, saying the state crime lab tested the contents of only five of the bags and it is unknown what the other 25 contained. He argued that five bags are consistent with personal use, thus the attempted distribution charge should be dismissed, but he admitted there is no state legal precedent to support his stance.

Prosecutor Linwood Gregory countered that the bags were picked at random and were a representative sample. He also pointed to Brown’s statements to police, and Hoover agreed.

“The defendant has 30 similarly packaged bags and all the rocks are roughly pea-sized and the same shape, color, and texture,” the judge said.

“Then we have the defendant’s statement that he buys coke each week from the same guy and sells each week to four people and names them,” the judge added. “What is his intent? His statement says what it is. He does not say these are just for me.”

Hoover revoked Brown’s bond, placing the defendant in jail until sentencing is held in April.