HAMLET — Police in the Seaboard City have filed drug and weapon charges against a convicted felon.
An arrest warrant issued March 10 the the Hamlet Police Department alleges that 40-year-old James Prentis Reader was in possession of unspecified quantities of cocaine and marijuana, as well as two boxes of sandwich baggies, a digital scale with reside, a plastic straw with white powder residue and two round cups with white powder residue.
Reader, who has four prior felony convictions, was also allegedly in possession of a .38-caliber revolver.
He was arrested and charged with: felony possession of cocaine; possession of a firearm by a felon; simple possession of a Schedule VI controlled substance; and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Reader was booked into the Richmond County Jail on a $100,000 secured bond and is scheduled to appear in court March 19.
Online court records show Reader has pending charges of possession of a firearm by a felon and a felony probation violation from 2024.
Records with the N.C. Department of Adult Correction show Reader has the following prior convictions:
2007 - maintaining any place for a controlled substance
2009 - receiving stolen goods, accessory after the fact of any felony, discharging a weapon into an occupied property, possession of stolen goods (NOTE: It appears charges were upgraded following a probation revocation)
2010 - felony larceny
2015 - driving while impaired
2023 - possession of a firearm by a felon (Moore County)
All defendants facing criminal charges are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
