Five years after SC prison escape and a crime spree in Georgia, he’s back in York jail
Zachery Reaves had a wild time after he escaped from the Catawba Pre-Release Center in 2016.
He fled to Georgia where he shot and injured a homeless man, then shot two dogs, records show. He even broke into a closed Atlanta-area restaurant and cooked himself eggs for breakfast.
Reaves, now 31, was caught in Georgia. He went to prison after being convicted.
Then he had to finish his original sentence in South Carolina — which was why he was in prison to begin with in 2016, before the escape.
But now, five years later, the old escape charge, and other York County crimes from after his escape, remain. Reaves was back in jail Monday in York County on arrest warrants for the 2016 escape and other alleged crimes that happened in York County after his escape.
The crime spree in SC, Georgia
Reaves is accused of escaping in January 2016 from the S.C. Department of Corrections pre-release center off Ogden Road outside Rock Hill, according to York County sheriff’s office incident reports and arrest warrants. At the time, Reaves was finishing a sentence for a burglary conviction from Horry County near Myrtle Beach.
The York County pre-release center closed in 2017.
While Reaves was free after the escape, he broke into a private school near Rock Hill where he stole laptops, two guns, and ammunition, police reports stated. In that burglary, Reaves is accused of taking two guns and ammunition that were in a drawer in an office at the private school.
More than a month after those crimes, he was caught in East Point, Georgia, near Atlanta, in early March 2016, police said.
Police in Georgia charged Reaves with a shooting that injured a homeless man, fatally shooting at least two dogs at an animal hospital, and break-ins at businesses among 14 felony crimes, according to Fulton County police and court records.
In one Mexican restaurant break-in, Reaves allegedly cooked himself breakfast at the closed eatery before fleeing in an incident caught on video surveillance.
Reaves was sentenced to five years in the Georgia Department of Corrections after he was convicted in late 2016 for the Atlanta-area crimes of burglary, animal cruelty, assault, and criminal damage to property, Georgia records show.
But when Reaves finished his Georgia prison sentence, he was not done behind bars. Authorities brought Reaves back to South Carolina to finish the eight-year burglary sentence he was serving at the time he escaped.
That past burglary sentence Reaves was serving before the escape finished Monday, said Chrysti Shain, spokeswoman for the S.C. Department of Corrections.
But Reaves did not walk out of prison a free man.
Arrest warrants from 2016 now served
Reaves was booked late Monday into the York County Jail on warrants from 2016, records show. Those included the arrest warrant for escape at the York pre-release center, Shain said.
He is also charged with York County arrest warrants for possession of a weapon during a violent crime, larceny and burglary from 2016 incidents at the York County school, according to York County Sheriff’s office spokesman Trent Faris.
Reaves could face as much as 35 years in prison or more if convicted of all the new charges, South Carolina law shows. Escape carries up to 10 years and burglary can carry up to 15 years, state law shows. The weapons and larceny charges carry up to five years..
Reaves remains in the York County Jail pending trial on the 2016 charges.
This story was originally published March 3, 2021 at 10:30 AM.
