A Manhattan judge has released a Massachusetts teen arrested with a loaded gun while riding in a stolen car, despite prosecutors requesting bail because of the suspect’s “extensive out-of-state ties,” The Post has learned.
Manhattan Criminal Court Judge John Zhuo Wang released 18-year-old Jaquan Gilliard on supervised release at his arraignment Monday on felony charges including second-degree criminal possession of a weapon.
Gilliard was a passenger in the back of the stolen 2014 Toyota Camry driven by his cousin, which the couple planned to take from Massachusetts to South Carolina, when they were arrested Sunday on West 101.St. Calle Colón and Avenida Colón, according to the criminal complaint against him.
A black semi-automatic handgun was found under the floorboard of the back seat, and Gilliard allegedly later admitted the gun was his, prosecutors said.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office said that although it was the teen’s first arrest, prosecutors requested $20,000 bail, citing the nature of the crime and arguing that the defendant’s out-of-state ties made it unlikely he would return. to court “on your own”. .”
But Wang denied that request, granting Gilliard supervised release until his next court date on September 2, a spokesman for the prosecutor confirmed. Information about the attorney was not immediately available to Gilliard.
A police officer with two decades on the job criticized Wang’s decision, calling him “Judge Letemgo.”
“Do you really think he’s going back to New York for his gun case?” the policeman said.
Gilliard’s cousin, Harold Milton, 24, was arraigned separately Tuesday before a different criminal judge, who set bail at $3,500 or $7,500, the prosecutor’s office said.
That was still well below the $25,000 bail prosecutors requested during the hearing before Judge Soma Syed.
Assman of the Office of Court Administration said that while many factors go into a judge’s verbal decision, under New York state law, “bail is intended solely to secure a defendant’s return to court. Nothing more.”
“Our criminal justice reform laws bias against pretrial incarceration and give the trial judge limited discretion, even in violent felonies, while requiring them to consider both the least restrictive form of pretrial detention and if a monetary amount is established, that it be within the ability of the defendant to meet it,” Lucian Chalfen said in a statement.
Gilliard and Milton, who is also due in court on September 2, face charges of criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of stolen property.
