DA: Loaded gun found by hotel housekeeper leads to Dorchester man's arrest

A communications mixup between the front desk and a housekeeper at the Holiday Inn Express on Boston Street last week led to a Dorchester man's arrest on charges of illegal weapons possession and possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

According to the DA's office, Reginald Weaks, 33, of Dorchester, had rented a room at the South Bay hotel. On March 4, he re-upped for another night, but word didn't get to a housekeeper, who entered the room after check out to clean it and found a backpack:

The housekeeper looked inside the bag for identification before bringing the bag to the lost and found desk and spotted the handgun. She immediately contacted her supervisor, who in turn summoned Boston police. The housekeeper also found a nugget of marijuana in one of the room’s dresser drawers.

When Weaks returned to the hotel that evening, hotel staff told him they'd handed his possessions over to police and that officers were on their way over to have a chat with him. Weaks, however, declined to wait for them and fled, the DA's office says.

According to prosecutors, the firearm, a Raven Arms MP-25 semiautomatic handgun, was loaded with four live rounds of ammunition and had no safety or locking mechanism. Police found a total of 4.8 ounces of pot in the drawer and the backpack.

Police caught up with Weaks on Tuesday in Dorchester and arrested him on charges of unlawful possession of a firearm as a subsequent offense, unlawful possession of ammunition, improper storage of a firearm and possession with intent to distribute a Class D substance.

At his arraignment in South Boston District Court yesterday, Judge Jonathan Tynes imposed $50,000 bail.

In 2009, Weaks was sentenced to two years in jail for a gun conviction in Suffolk Superior Court, the DA's office reports. He also has past convictions for possession of Class B and D drugs with intent to distribute.

Innocent, etc.