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Rahajahi Taylor Batchelor, 17, was among nine other adults charged in late September for illegally obtaining and reselling 44 firearms in Montgomery, Bucks and Philadelphia counties in July and August 2020, Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele said.
Batchelor was certified as an adult before Judge Cheryl Austin following a lengthy hearing in Juvenile Court on Nov. 24, Steele said alongside Norristown Police Chief Mark E. Talbot.
Batchelor is facing 166 felony counts of corrupt organization, conspiracy, dealing in the proceeds of unlawful activities, illegal sale or transfer of firearms and criminal use of a communications facility. He is also facing 21 misdemeanor counts of possession of a firearm by a minor.
“This 17-year-old was one of the ringleaders that orchestrated the straw purchases of 44 firearms by three adults and then illegally sold those firearms to people who could not legally buy firearms for themselves," Steele said.
"This defendant, along with his co-conspirators, has done a tremendous amount of damage to the safety of our community here in Montgomery County and in the greater southeastern Pennsylvania region."
The other defendants are Terrance Barker, Jamil Brown, Clarence Codada, Demetrius Huggins Jr., Shaireese Liles, Anthony McCrary, and John McDonald, all of Philadelphia; Ashon Pearson of Norristown; and Mikal Scott of Cheltenham.
Four other juvenile males, ages 14 to 17 years, were involved in the gun trafficking organization but to a lesser extent than Batchelor, Steele said. The District Attorney’s Office did not seek to certify them as adults.
The investigation began on Aug. 9, when Montgomery County Detectives were routinely reviewing paperwork related to multiple gun purchases by individuals and noted McCrary’s high number of guns purchased from federally licensed dealers.
The next day, Norristown police responded to Suburban Community Hospital for a report of a gunshot victim, later identified as Batchelor.
The Norristown police investigation determined that Batchelor had accidentally shot himself in his arm inside a his family’s home on Green Street in Norristown. Inside the house, police found two gun boxes that had been purchased on the day of the shooting by McCrary, who is Batchelor’s cousin but does not live at the residence.
Neither gun had been reported stolen, indicating possible “straw purchases.”
A “straw purchase” is when a person with a clean background purchases firearms specifically on behalf of another person to conceal the true ownership of the firearm, Steele said.
Individuals who are unable to legally purchase a firearm would include convicted felons, domestic violence misdemeanants, juveniles and mentally ill individuals.
From there, authorities began investigating McCrary’s firearms purchases both through the Electronic Record of Sale (EROS) system and through hard copies of ATF and Pennsylvania State Police forms at gun stores.
"They found that he had been buying an alarming number of firearms from firearms stores in Montgomery, Bucks and Philadelphia counties, sometimes visiting more than one gun store in a day and buying multiple firearms at the same time," said Steele, "often including multiple purchases of the same make and model of gun."
The ensuing investigation used surveillance, cell phone analysis, review of federal firearms forms and EROS, social media analysis, search warrants, interviews and other methods of investigation to uncover the participants of the gun trafficking organization.
Of the 44 firearms that were found to be straw purchases for the organization, only nine have been recovered by police to date.
According to Juvenile Court rules, the certification hearing serves as the preliminary hearing for the defendant. Following the presentation of evidence at the certification hearing, Judge Austin ordered the case to be transferred to the Court of Common Pleas. Austin set bail at $250,000 cash, and the Batchelor was remanded. He is currently being held at the Lehigh County Prison, which can accommodate housing a 17-year-old away from older prisoners.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Kathleen McLaughlin, who is the Captain of the Firearms Unit, and Assistant District Attorney Samantha Arena of the Firearms Unit.
The investigation was led by the Montgomery County Detective Bureau’s Violent Crime Unit (VCU) and the Norristown Police Department with assistance from the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General’s Gun Violence Task Force, the FBI’s Bucks and Montgomery County Safe Streets Task Force, United States Marshals, Cheltenham Township Police Department, Abington Township Police Department, Philadelphia Police Department, Pennsylvania State Police, Warminster Township Police Department, Bensalem Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
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