Man Charged With Selling Heroin to Undercover Enfield Cops

ENFIELD, CT — A man with a lengthy criminal record who has evaded arrest for nearly two years on charges of selling narcotics to undercover officers was taken into custody Tuesday in Hartford and turned over to Enfield police.

Jovan Pride, 25, was charged with two counts of sale of certain illegal drugs and possession of a controlled substance within 1,500 feet of a school/daycare/public housing, as well as violation of probation.

He was held overnight in lieu of $75,000 bond, and is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday in Enfield Superior Court.

Pride is accused of selling heroin to undercover Enfield police officers on High Street in Thompsonville in Sept. 2014, near the Enfield Child Development Center, Deputy Police Chief Gary Collins said.

Police obtained an arrest warrant for him, but he has eluded capture until Tuesday, when Hartford police took him into custody, Collins said. The circumstances of his capture were not revealed.

According to judicial records, Pride has 10 prior convictions since 2009, mostly for larceny charges during that year. He was sentenced to three years in prison on assault and burglary charges in late 2009, and was also convicted of second-degree forgery in West Hartford in 2013, receiving a one-year suspended sentence and 18 months probation.

Photo courtesy of Enfield Police Department