LR drug suspect loses bid for bail reduction

A Pulaski County circuit judge has declined to reduce the $500,000 bail of a Little Rock man who was arrested twice in a four-month span this year with drugs and guns in his car.

Defense attorney Fernando Padilla petitioned Judge Leon Johnson to scale down Zhraequon Johnson’s bail to a more reasonable amount. The lawyer castigated prosecution arguments as efforts to malign his client as violent just because guns were found near him on the two occasions he was arrested in Little Rock.

Padilla disputed that the guns belonged to his client, but told the judge there’s no law barring Johnson from owning guns.

“Mr. Johnson is not a convicted felon,” he said. “Arkansas is a right-to-carry state.”

Police say Johnson is a gang member, although objections by Padilla blocked police from testifying about such activities.

Deputy prosecutor Amanda Fields asked the judge to consider the severity of the charges against Johnson. He’s charged with two counts of simultaneous possession of firearms and drugs, each count is a Class Y felony. Capital murder is the only charge more serious, Fields said.

She also said that Zhraequon Johnson’s mother has moved to Texas and that there’s evidence she wants him to join her there.

Johnson’s mother is Shunta Johnson, who was driving the car carrying 2-year-old Ramiya Reed when the toddler was fatally wounded in a Little Rock shooting just before Thanksgiving. Shunta Johnson and the toddler’s mother are cousins.

Zhraequon Johnson did not testify in the bail-reduction hearing last month.

The only family member who spoke on Johnson’s behalf at the Sept. 25 hearing was his grandfather, 60-year-old Clyde Williams, who is on probation for a 2009 child-molestation conviction. He told the judge the most the family could afford was $25,000 bail.

Detective Christian Sterka testified about both of Johnson’s arrests.

Police pulled over the car Johnson was driving on March 2 because it matched the description of a vehicle seen leaving the scene of a shooting about 12 hours earlier at 3023 Boyd St., Sterka said. Caesar Morgan was wounded in the leg while shots were fired into the home.

No one has ever been charged in that incident.

Johnson led police on a chase by car and by foot that ended when he was arrested after being found hiding in a garbage can at 3304 W. Seventh St., Sterka told the judge. Police discovered oxycodone tablets, which are illegal without a prescription, and marijuana in the vehicle.

A stolen .40-caliber pistol was on the driver’s seat and an AR-15 rifle on the passenger seat, the detective said.

Johnson also was wanted on a failure-to-appear warrant on Faulkner County charges of credit card fraud, theft by receiving and fleeing, he said.

Johnson was next arrested on July 6, again with oxycodone pills, marijuana and a pistol, the detective said.

Sterka told the judge that Johnson was wanted in Saline County in connection with a theft-by-receiving charge involving a stolen Honda Accord.

A police specialist in apprehending fugitives, Sterka said he’d gotten a tip on Johnson’s whereabouts, so police put the location under surveillance until they saw Johnson get into a car and drive away.

After patrol officers stopped the car, Sterka said he was walking up to Johnson, who was in the passenger seat, when he saw the defendant put something dark between his leg.

Officers found a loaded Glock 27 handgun under the seat with an extended clip holding another 26 rounds in the car console, the detective said. Johnson also had marijuana and the pills on him, Sterka said.