A Buckingham County man with a lengthy criminal record was convicted Monday of possessing illegal drugs while in jail.
Travis Lamont Maxey, 42, received a felony conviction and 60-day jail sentence for getting caught in December with Suboxone strips inside the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail.
The judge who accepted the plea agreement said the punishment served the ends of justice because Maxey has already been in jail for roughly 2 1/2 years for offenses committed in Cumberland and Prince Edward counties.
"You are getting less time than you should get, so don’t ever do that again," said Judge Richard E. Moore. "Do you understand that?"
"Yes, sir," replied Maxey, appearing contrite in his jail-issued jumpsuit in the small upstairs courtroom in the Albemarle County Courthouse in downtown Charlottesville.
Suboxone is a brand name for a mixture of buprenorphine and naloxone and has been credited with reducing drug cravings and preventing withdrawal symptoms for addicts. However, the compound can produce its own intoxicating effects.
"This medicine may be habit-forming," according to an information sheet published by the Mayo Clinic, which lists 17 other medication with which it can negatively interact.
Maxey didn’t say why he possessed the strips behind bars, but Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Shannon Pollock said the contraband was discovered after Maxey was transferred from Piedmont Regional Jail outside Farmville to Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail on Dec. 4. She said Maxey successfully passed his intake inspection but that jail officials subsequently found the Suboxone tucked into the toilet paper roll he was given upon intake.
"It would be a circumstantial case," said Maxey’s defense attorney, Jessica Phillips. "There would be some issues at trial."
While contraband in jail carries a maximum 10-year sentence, both sides agreed that punishing Maxey beyond his time served was less important than resolving the charge hanging over him.
"A felony conviction was really important to the jail," said Pollock, "to send a message to everyone at the jail."
The judge then noted that drugs in jail can lead to erratic behavior and, in the worst-case scenario, violence — such as overpowering a guard.
"That’s why it’s a felony," said Moore.
This is not Maxey’s first conviction for jail contraband. He was previously convicted in Prince Edward County for having marijuana in jail. His record includes nearly 40 arrests in Central Virginia, with convictions for cocaine distribution, burglary and grand larceny, as well as numerous probation violations.
The reason Maxey was transferred to the Charlottesville jail was to deal with a parole violation on a year-earlier conviction in the city. In 2023, he was found guilty in Charlottesville Circuit Court of stealing a woman’s purse earlier that year near the the University of Virginia commercial district known as the Corner.
Near the 11th Street Garage, a man later identified as Maxey asked a woman for a light of his cigarette, according to a police report. As she loosened her grip on her purse to retrieve a lighter, the investigating officer wrote, "the suspect grabbed her purse from her and ran."
However, in doing so, he dropped a Virginia identification card and two ATM cards bearing Maxey’s name.
"He also, in his escape," wrote UVa police officer Andrew Weaver, "dropped the backpack that he was carrying, which has the distinct design of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles surfing on slices of pizza."
The victim subsequently identified Maxey as the culprit, and he pleaded guilty to grand larceny and received a six-year sentence with five years suspended.
Source: www.dailyprogress.com