THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, May 4, 1996 TAG: 9605040351
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LYNN WALTZ, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines
The plan by federal agents to snag the reputed drug gang enforcer implicated in two murders was elaborate. The agents, wearing camouflage fatigues, arrived in a motorboat and a U-Haul truck.
This is how they would do it: Invade a barbecue at his James City County home and arrest him.
But after crack smoking partiers stumbled on the camouflaged agents in the woods, the plan fell apart and the suspect, Larry E. Reed, got away.
The agents still got their man, three days later, when Reed was spotted by two off-duty police officers at a bait and tackle shop.
The arrest was one of four revealed Friday when federal indictments were unsealed in court here. The indictments show the extent of the gang's violence, including the 1988 slaying of a Denbigh English teacher, the mother of a 17-year-old daughter.
Federal agents had hoped to arrest Reed during the April 26 raid, a two-pronged attack from land and water as Reed partied at a barbecue in his yard. Eight SWAT team members in camouflage slipped off a motor boat on the Little Creek Reservoir and headed into the woods near Reed's home.
While other agents headed toward the home in a U-Haul truck, the SWAT team snaked into position on their bellies, peering through the underbrush at the outdoor barbecue.
They spotted Reed among the 14 people who were partying. Reed had been indicted in April by a federal grand jury on cocaine conspiracy charges that included allegations that he killed two people and shot three others.
As the SWAT team lay in wait, two of the partiers purchased crack and walked into the woods to smoke it. They stopped at a spot virtually on top of the prone drug agents.
``They could have reached out and taken their shoelaces out,'' said Lt. Dee Linhart, coordinator of the Colonial Narcotics Task Force.
Suddenly, the stoned partiers spotted the camouflaged faces. Then they bolted toward the house, the SWAT team in pursuit. One team member tossed a nonlethal explosive on the lawn. All the partiers hit the dirt - except Reed.
He took off on foot, giving the feds the slip in the confusion.
The indictment charges Reed with eight counts of violence or threatened violence and alleges he offered himself as a ``hit man'' to a Jamaican cocaine supplier.
Courtney Floyd Gregory, 29, of Brooklyn, N.Y., was located Monday morning in Worcester, Mass., where he was picked up on other charges.
The two other suspects, Ernest Sterling Wright, 35, and Scott William Lee, 28, both of James City County, were already in custody when the indictment was unsealed.
The indictment alleges Reed was responsible for two murders, including the slaying of Maxine Menzel Amos on Sept. 25, 1988. Newspaper reports at the time indicate that Amos was forced at gunpoint to a tree near the Chickahominy River in James City County, shot three times in the head and left to die.
The 39-year-old Toano woman had been visiting her parents to celebrate her birthday. She had decided to stay home that Sunday while they went to church. The killer took $40, a .22-caliber rifle and two 12-gauge shotguns from the house.
When Amos didn't meet her parents for lunch as planned, they went home and found a smashed windowpane and the telephone yanked out of the wall. A search and rescue team found Amos two hours later, alive but unconscious at the base of the tree.
The indictment alleges Reed also was involved in the slaying of Leroy Lee, 30, of Grove in James City County. He was found shot to death Oct. 17, 1988, off Little Creek Dam Road. Lee was killed three weeks after Amos. At the time, police did not believe the two slayings were related.
Reed and alleged co-conspirator Wright are both cousins of Marty Wright, indicted last year as the alleged leader of one of three drug gangs that controlled territories in Williamsburg, and in James City and New Kent counties.
Wright and two other alleged leaders, Anthony L. Olvis and Terry D. Jones, are in custody awaiting an appeal by prosecutors after their charges were dismissed by a federal judge who said they may have been unfairly prosecuted.
The three gangs allegedly staked out separate territories and worked as friendly competitors. However, prosecutors say the gangs used considerable violence including beatings, shootings and murder. ILLUSTRATION: Map
KEYWORDS: MURDER ARREST DRUGS by CNB