Two Galloway Township Men Indicted on First-Degree Cocaine and Weapon Charges

Ruben Sewell

TRENTON – Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman announced that two Atlantic County men were indicted today on narcotics and weapons charges, including a first-degree cocaine charge, resulting from an investigation by the Atlantic City Violent Crimes Task Force.

Ruben Sewell, 33, and Lavelle Davis, 34, who reside together on Buck Drive in Galloway Township, were indicted today by an Atlantic County grand jury.  Each man is charged with possession of cocaine with intent to distribute (1st degree), possession of cocaine (3rd degree), possession of heroin with intent to distribute (3rd degree), possession of heroin (3rd degree), unlawful possession of a handgun (2nd degree), possession of a handgun during commission of a drug offense (2nd degree), possession of a firearm as a convicted felon (2nd degree), and possession of prohibited weapons and devices (hollow-point bullets) (4th degree).

Lavelle Davis

The charges stem from an investigation by the Atlantic City Violent Crimes Task Force.  Members of the New Jersey State Police Fugitive Unit and the U.S. Marshals Service New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force were at the home of Sewell and Davis on June 7, 2013 to serve warrants on Sewell and another individual when they allegedly found cocaine and a handgun in plain sight inside the residence.  They alerted the task force, which obtained and executed a search warrant at the house, seizing about half a kilogram of cocaine, 18 bricks of heroin (roughly 900 glassine folds), a .40-caliber handgun, nine illegal hollow-point bullets and over $32,000 in cash.

Assistant Prosecutor Erik Bergman of the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office, acting as a Special Deputy Attorney General, presented the case to the grand jury for the Atlantic City Violent Crimes Task Force.  Detective Eric Wise of the Atlantic County Sheriff’s Office led the investigation for the task force.

The first-degree drug charge carries a sentence of 10 to 20 years in state prison and a fine of up to $500,000. The second-degree gun charges carry a sentence of five to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $150,000.  The gun charges also carry mandatory periods of parole ineligibility of five years for possessing a weapon as a convicted felon, and three to five years for the other charges.  The third-degree charges carry a sentence of three to five years in prison and a fine of up to $35,000, and the fourth-degree charge carries a sentence of up to 18 months in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.

The indictment is merely an accusation and the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty