OAKLAND — Eight months after he was arrested and charged by the U.S. Department of Justice with illegal gun possession, an Oakland man is facing new charges related to an Aug. 30 arrest, after allegedly absconding from a halfway house, court records show.
Masia Hollins, 22, an independent rapper who uses the stage name Dooder, was charged this month with possessing a concealed weapon and evading police, court records show. He also still faces pending federal charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm, and is being held in Santa Rita Jail in Dublin without bail.
Oakland police have been searching for Hollins since late April, when he allegedly ran away from a halfway house in San Francisco. Last January, a federal judge released Hollins, siding against a prosecution motion to keep him detained.
Officers finally spotted Hollins and another man in a vehicle driving through Hayward on Aug. 30. They attempted to pull him over, but Hollins allegedly sped away and struck two parked vehicles. He and his passenger then attempted to flee but police caught them, authorities say. Inside the car, police allegedly found a loaded firearm with an extended magazine.
Now, federal prosecutors are moving to not only keep Hollins behind bars, but say that by fleeing he forfeited a $50,000 bond that had been put up by a loved one. A judge is set to rule on the motion on Sept. 25, records show.
During the arrest, police say they recovered evidence Hollins had been associating with other gang members from the Acorn housing development, including 25-year-old James “Sosa” Hall, who was shot and killed July 31 in the 1000 block of Eighth Street in Oakland.
Back in January, Hollins’ lawyer, Assistant Federal Public Defender Angela Hansen, argued that her client should be released and that authorities were unfairly painting him out to be a career criminal.
“Mr. Hollins has a high school education and no serious addiction or mental health issues. He was employed at the time of the offense, and he can return to work after his release,” Hansen wrote.
