Charlotte man raped woman days after early release from federal prison, police say
A Charlotte man who was sentenced to more than two years in federal prison for stealing 20 guns from a local arms dealer was released after serving five months. Within days, he was arrested and accused of raping a woman at gunpoint, according to court records.
Reginald Marsaeus Moses, 22, rammed into Carolina Sporting Arms with a group of six teens in February 2024 and stole 18 handguns, one 12-gauge shotgun and one rifle, according to court documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina.
He was arrested and charged in the robbery in August 2024. In August 2025, a federal judge sentenced him to two years and three months in prison.
Even with credit for the year he spent in jail between his arrest and sentencing, Moses was expected to be in prison until the end of this year. But he was released in January, and days later he raped a woman in northeast Charlotte, according to a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department officer’s affidavit filed in the Mecklenburg County Courthouse.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons and U.S. marshals in Charlotte said federal privacy laws prohibit them from releasing information on why he was released early. Federal prisoners can be released early if they enroll in particular programs or go to a halfway house.
Rape days after release
A woman told police that she met a man online and agreed to meet him and have sex with him for money on Jan. 23. When she got to his home near Old Concord Road, north of Charlotte’s Eastway neighborhood, the man took her inside.
There, another man was waiting with a gun.
The two men wore face masks and raped the woman at gunpoint at the same time, court documents filed in the Mecklenburg County Courthouse say.
Police found that Moses owned the account the woman was messaging. He also had an 11-minute-long video of the rape, which clearly showed his face, the other man and the woman’s tattoos, police said.
He now faces charges of first-degree rape, first-degree sex offense, first-degree kidnapping, assault on a female, assaulting by pointing a gun, and felony conspiracy. He is being held in Mecklenburg County Detention Center on no bond. It is not clear whether police have arrested the other man captured in the video.
