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Reginald H. Ware (Courtesy JERSEY CITY PD)
In the last two heists, the pair used a getaway car that 41-year-old Reginald H. Ware on Wednesday admitted taking from a livery driver in New York last October.
Paul J. Fishman, the U.S. attorney for New Jersey, made a case against Ware that fit perfectly with Attorney General Eric Holder’s request that federal prosecutors in all 50 states to start bringing the weight of the government down on the worst of the worst criminals.
Jersey City police arrested Ware and an accomplice — Rahoo Drew, 31, of Newark – following a string of brazen holdups there and in Union City. Assistant prosecutors from Fishman’s office then stepped in and took the case to the federal level, where the penalties are much more severe than under state guidelines.
Ware, of Newark, pleaded guilty today in connection with the four holdups, as well as a carjacking. He had little choice, given that Drew already pleaded guilty to similar charges and would have testified against his ex-partner in order to get a reduced prison sentence.
With the number of murders and attacks on police officers rising, Holder convened an unprecedented gathering in March of police chiefs from around the country, along with top federal law enforcement officials.
There he directed all 93 top federal prosecutors, including Fishman, to meet with police brass in their respective states and identify the “worst of the worst” gun offenders who cycle in and out of state prison.
Federal convictions bring definite sentences that must be served out, with barely a few weeks off for good behavior, as opposed to state sentences that often put offenders back on the street in months, if not weeks.
“It will be a priority for every United States attorney in this country to have that kind of interaction with their state and local counterparts to make sure that we are doing all that we can to keep law enforcement agents… safe,” Holder said at the time.
Ware — also known as “Ronell Wilson,” “Kyiis M. Justice,” and “Kyyiis Justice” — spent nearly a dozen years in prison for various crimes, mostly holdups, and had been free barely a year when last year’s stickups began, records show.
Federal authorities said Ware and Drew robbed the Wisdom Pharmacy at 2717 Kennedy Blvd. in Jersey City on July 27; the Welcome Pharmacy on West Side Avenue in Jersey City on Aug. 4; the Americas Pharmacy on Summit Avenue in Union City on Oct. 14, and Carry Drugs in Jersey City on Oct. 16.
In each, the two men “walked into the pharmacies with firearms in hand and ordered everyone to lie on the floor facing down,” a federal complaint says. “The victims were threatened with death if they did not comply.
“After securing the victims inside the pharmacy, the two men seized controlled substances and took cash from the pharmacies and individual victims, as well as jewelry.”
Ware is looking at up to 20 years in federal prison for the holdups alone. The carjacking conviction carries a 15-year maximum stretch. On top of that is a seven-year automatic sentence for being a convicted felon carrying a firearm.
Fishman credited Jersey City police and the Hudson County prosecutor’s office, along with the FBI, for making the case, which was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys José R. Almonte of Fishman’s General Crimes Unit and Robert Frazer of his Organized Crime/Gangs Unit in Newark.
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