She’s grounded.
The alleged coke-mule flight attendant from Queenswho fled a Los Angeles airport just before workers spotted $3 million in blow in her luggage will stay jailed until she’s shipped to California for an April appearance, court papers show.
California federal Judge Andre Birotte Jr. ordered that Marsha Gay Reynolds, 31, remain locked up until she faces an arraignment for drug raps there April 7.
Brooklyn Judge Viktor Pohorelsky had granted the former beauty queen and NYU track standout a $500,000 bail package Thursday but stayed the ruling until California authorities could weigh in.
Reynolds had abruptly kicked off her Gucci shoes and fled LAX Airport last week after she was selected for a random screening. Agents discovered a stunning cache of cocaine in her bags — almost 70 pounds of blow worth roughly $3 million, prosecutors said.
Reynolds was later able to hop on another flight home to New York because she hadn’t been ID’d as the suspect at the time. She eventually turned herself in before appearing in Brooklyn federal court Thursday.
“The defendant is ordered to remain in custody and await transport by the United States Marshal to the Central District of California,” Birotte ruled.
Brooklyn prosecutors — who opposed a bail package — revealed in court that Reynolds had an accomplice who remains at large.
A family representative defended her outside of court, portraying her as a hard-working nursing student and flight attendant who had no prior contact with the law.
But Brooklyn prosecutors said in court Thursday, without elaborating, that she had transported cocaine on prior occasions.
Reynolds dropped two suitcases full of cocaine at Los Angeles International Airport — along with her Gucci shoes — before fleeing in panic turned herself in to authorities in New York on Wednesday, sources said. She was arrested by Drug Enforcement Administration agents, sources said.
The JetBlue flight attendant, a former beauty pageant contestant, was randomly stopped last Friday at a checkpoint for airline workers. She kicked off her Gucci heels, dropped the drugs and bolted, according to sources. She then boarded a flight to New York and went to her Queens apartment before holing up in the Hilton Hotel near JFK Airport, the sources said.
The nearly 70 pounds of cocaine found stashed in her suitcases was estimated to be worth $2 million. During the LAX incident, Reynolds was escorted to the front of the screening area and apparently became alarmed when she realized she’d be caught. After walking about 15 feet with her carry-on bags, the former NYU track star threw them down and made a run for it, leaving behind the dope.
“She kicked her high heels off and left her shoes and bag behind,” said Marshall McClain of the Los Angeles Airport Peace Officers Association. “She knew if she dropped both of them, she’d be able to run away more quickly,” he explained. “She was then able to high-foot it out of the terminal, down an up escalator while barefoot, where we assume she got into a car and took off to parts unknown.” In her bags, TSA agents found clothes, Trojan Magnum condoms and 68.49 pounds of cocaine wrapped in green saran wrap and labeled “BIG Ranch,” cops said. She also left behind her leather, size-8½ Gucci shoes.
But because TSA agents did not get her name, Reynolds may have been able to board her red-eye flight to La Guardia on Friday night. After being apprehended in New York, she was charged in a criminal complaint filed in Los Angeles on Wednesday. Reynolds is listed as a member of NYU’s 2004 women’s track and field team, according to the school’s website. She was also a runner-up in the 2007 Miss Jamaica Universe pageant, according to the Jamaica Gleaner. Reynolds was awaiting arraignment at Brooklyn federal court on Wednesday night.
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