Noel Jones
An Essex County man who allegedly tried to bring a stolen gun into an Atlantic City courthouse last week was ordered held in jail Monday.
Noel Jones, 53, of East Orange, was arrested last Tuesday, after he tried to enter the Atlantic County Civil Courthouse with a .22-caliber Taurus handgun reported stolen out of Dinwiddie County in Virginia, according to the charges.
Jones has a criminal history dating to the 1990s, with 26 prior indictable convictions, including aggravated assault with a firearm, according to information given at his detention hearing Monday.
He also has seven disorderly persons convictions, with two more pending out of Cumberland County, court records show.
Jones was charged with hindering in Upper Deerfield Township in April, and has a pending drug case from March 2022 out of Vineland, according to court records.
His public safety assessment used to help determine whether a defendant should be held under bail reform gave him a failure to appear risk of five out of six, and six out of six for likelihood to reoffend.
Jones also was flagged for violence, with a recommendation to detain him.
He was heading into the Civil Courthouse on Tuesday morning as part of his work with a re-entry program out of Camden called New Beginnings, according to public defender John Bjorklund.
“He’s been doing that for quite some time,” his attorney said. “(Jones) goes to courthouse with some regularity and meets with defendants who are placed into the program.”
This time Sheriff’s Officers Vincent Esher, Lauren Kromenacker and Alex Banaga saw a gun inside Jones’ backpack as it went through the X-ray machine, according to the Atlantic County Sheriff’s Office.
Sgt. Drew Eckert then searched the backpack and found the gun whose serial number was in the system as stolen, Esher wrote in the affidavit of probable cause obtained by BreakingAC.
The gun was not loaded and there was no ammunition recovered, Bjorklund argued.
He also indicated his client claims that the gun may have been placed there by a third party.
“His belongings are in a common area on a regular basis where there are other convicted felons,” Bjorklund told the judge.
But the judge agreed with the public safety assessment’s recommendation, pointing to Jones’ significant criminal history that included 22 prison sentences that ranged from days to 20 years.
Jones is charged with second-degree counts of possession of a weapon and possession by a certain person not to possess a weapon, along with third-degree charges of receiving stolen property and carrying a firearm into a courthouse.
The judge indicated surprise that carrying a gun into a courthouse was a lesser degree than possession.
“That seems like an anomaly but I’ll leave it there,” Levin said. “I’m not going to comment. The Legislature is free to pass the laws as they see fit.”
Jones will now remain in the Atlantic County Justice Facility as his case goes through the system.
