A North Carolina man was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison last Friday for leading a drug trafficking operation partially out of an in-home day care in Fayetteville, N.C.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice a jury found 36-year-old Reshod Jamar Everett guilty of six felony drug trafficking and firearms related charges in May. Alvin Milton Davis, III – a 31-year-old co-defendant – was previously convicted and sentenced to 11 years in prison, said the Fayetteville Police Department.
“Despite Everett’s best efforts to undermine the public trust in our local law enforcement partners, investigators were able to build a comprehensive case demonstrating that he was responsible for distributing vast quantities of illegal drugs in the Fayetteville area,” said Michael Easley, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina. “The fact that he stored drugs, cash, and loaded, high-powered AR rifles at an in-home daycare further underscores the danger that Everett presented to the community at large.”
Fayetteville Police Chief Gina Hawkins said that Everett “used the compassion” of the community to deflect his criminal activities for years.
“The threat this individual posed to the community cannot be overstated,” said Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Special Agent in Charge Bennie Mims. “Large quantities of drugs and multiple firearms – many of which were loaded and ready to fire – were recovered within a business that served parents and children. Mims added that the situation was an “tragedy waiting to happen.”
Of the firearms found at the home daycare premises, several were loaded, high-powered rifles. At least one was set to “fire” and could have gone off with a small amount of pressure to the trigger.
Investigators with the Fayetteville police determined in July 2018 that Everett was distributing “large amounts of controlled substances” from an apartment in the community, said the Justice Department. That summer, they stopped Davis as he left the apartment complex in a Cadillac and found marijuana, cocaine and a loaded handgun with an extended magazine inside the car.
Agents also obtained a search warrant for the apartment, where they found and seized more than 36 pounds of marijuana, more than 300 grams of cocaine and a loaded CZ Scorpion firearm.
The following day more than $65,000, eight firearms, ammunition and THC edibles were seized from the home Everett shared with his wife in Fayetteville, as well as THC wax, tramadol, and drug packaging materials found in a detached shed. Another 65 pounds of marijuana was found in Everett’s storage unit.
“Witness testimony established that Everett was responsible for more than five kilograms of cocaine and more than 1,700 kilograms of marijuana,” said the Justice Department.
Additionally, evidence presented at trial showed that Everett gave false testimony under oath, attempted to bribe or threaten others to give false testimony, had gang members intimidate witnesses and engaged “in an extensive social media campaign to falsely accuse the Fayetteville Police Department and Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office of wrongdoing.”
Michael Easley, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, announced Everett’s sentencing by U.S. District Court Judge James C. Dever III.
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