Name: Federal fight against carjackings brings tough sentences, but hurdles limit case count as violent heists mount in Chicago
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Federal fight against carjackings brings tough sentences, but hurdles limit case count as violent heists mount in Chicago

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AdvertisementBy Chicago TribuneFeb 15, 2021 at 5:00 amOn a muggy morning in July 2018, Terronde Gordon and two friends were riding around in a hijacked Toyota Prius when they happened upon a husband and his pregnant wife in Bucktown getting ready to go to work.The crew stuck guns in the victims’ faces and forced the couple to lie on the ground before stealing their brand-new Land Rover, according to court records. Hours later, the crime spree ended at a South Side intersection when the joy riding trio crashed the stolen Prius into a medical van transporting a blind woman.AdvertisementNow, 2½ years later, Gordon and his co-defendants, Tyran Carter and Dwayne Liberty, stand convicted of federal carjacking offenses for their actions that day.Their case was one of the first to stem from a joint task force formed in 2018 between Chicago police and federal law enforcement that sought to bring more carjacking cases in federal court. The initiative was touted as a way to win elevated prison sentences apart from the often-revolving door of the Cook County criminal justice and deter others from participating in such violent acts.AdvertisementAs the limited number of federal cases made by the task force have wound their way through court, however, carjackings have continued to spin out of control, raising questions whether the federal effort has made much of a dent.In January alone, there were 218 vehicular hijackings reported in Chicago, compared with 86 in the same month in 2018 — a 150% increase that has left residents panicked and police and Mayor Lori Lightfoot scrambling for answers. In total in 2020, there were more than 1,400 carjackings reported in the city, which was double the prior year and the highest amount recorded here since 2001.In the midst of those staggering numbers, the U.S. attorney’s office has charged just 12 carjacking cases in the three years since the task force was formed, involving a total of 20 defendants, court records show.Federal prosecutors say they’re doing what they can, but there are legal obstacles that can prevent them from taking more cases themselves, particularly in situations involving juveniles where no one is hurt or killed.Still, the feds have found success on the sentencing front, at a time when many critics say the state system does not have enough teeth. So far, seven of 20 defendants charged under the federal initiative have been sentenced, with an average prison term of 9½ years, records showed.Gordon, who pleaded guilty to a single carjacking count for stealing the Land Rover, faces a guideline range of up to 10 years in prison when he’s sentenced March 1.“Carjacking is a particularly personal and violent offense,” U.S. Attorney John Lausch said in a statement to the Tribune. “Whether we charge an offender with a federal carjacking or firearm offense, or use federal resources to help make a state case, we are working together to stop the carjackers who are terrorizing our communities.”Because of legal hurdles, the carjacking cases that the U.S. attorney’s office has so far elected to take on have been particularly violent and involved suspects who could be charged as adults.AdvertisementOne of the first cases charged in U.S. District Court accused Jason Dortch and Davontae Jones of carjacking two men at gunpoint in Chicago’s Goose Island neighborhood and leading police on a high-speed chase in November 2017, when they were both in their late teens.During the heist, one of the robbers struck one victim in the back of the head with a gun as the other pointed the barrel of another firearm at both the men’s foreheads. The men handed over the keys to their Jeep Cherokee and $40 in cash, prosecutors said.In another case, federal prosecutors charged four men with the October 2018 armed carjacking of an off-duty Chicago police detective in the Edgewater Beach neighborhood.According to prosecutors, Jamar Jarvis and his co-defendants, Raynell Lanford, Jamaal Ashsaheed, Javion Bush, as well as a juvenile who was charged in Cook County, confronted the 47-year-old woman as she exited the garage behind her home. Jarvis pointed a gun at her head while Lanford demanded what she had with her, including the keys to her Lexus SUV.The detective told police that as they took her belongings, Lanford asked her, “How does it feel knowing you’re going to die tonight?” according to court records.As the victim ran away screaming for help, Jarvis and the others jumped into the Lexus and drove off, stopping to buy cigarettes and snacks at a convenience store. Police later spotted the vehicle on Lake Shore Drive and tried to curb it, leading to a foot chase and the arrests of all five suspects, according to court records.AdvertisementLanford and Ashsaheed pleaded guilty to carjacking and were sentenced to just over 10 years in prison, records show. Bush pleaded guilty to being an accessory to the crime and received 15 months behind bars.Jarvis, meanwhile, pleaded guilty but later withdrew the plea and said he wanted to go to trial. He’s now changed his mind again and is scheduled to plead guilty for a second time on Feb. 22, records show.In a sentencing memo filed earlier in the case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Albert Berry III called the flippant nature of the crime “abhorrent.”“The car was stolen and (Jarvis) and his cohorts got snacks and cigarettes,” Berry wrote. “(They) upended the life of a woman for fun.”Many of the reasons the U.S. attorney’s office is picky in which carjacking cases it takes have to do with subtle differences between the federal and state justice systems.For one, the federal carjacking statute requires prosecutors to prove beyond a reasonable doubt not only that a vehicle was taken by force, but that a defendant “intended to cause serious bodily harm or death,” a high bar that is not required at the state level.AdvertisementThe federal system also isn’t designed to prosecute juveniles, who Chicago police have said are the driving force behind the recent spike in carjacking cases.Although there is no legal reason the U.S. attorney’s office can’t charge someone as a juvenile, it’s rarely done because states tend to have a much more established infrastructure to deal with minors. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons houses juveniles only in rare circumstances.Jeffrey Cramer, a former federal prosecutor who handled many violent crime cases, said the fact that so many young people are allegedly involved in the carjacking surge signals a complex societal breakdown that isn’t going to be solved by law enforcement alone.“You can’t arrest your way to a solution when you have 13- and 14-year-old boys carrying 9 millimeters and putting them in the face of drivers,” said Cramer, now the managing director of Berkeley Research Group in Chicago. “That’s a problem that goes far beyond the courthouse at 219 S. Dearborn.”But long sentences — particularly in federal prison — can still be a deterrent as long as other would-be carjackers get the message, Cramer said.“You need to let tomorrow’s defendant know about it,” Cramer said. “If someone gets sentenced to 10 years in prison in Yankton, South Dakota, where they have to serve 85%, that sends a message. Others will realize if you’re going to carjack somebody just for a joyride, that can be a pretty expensive ride.”AdvertisementFederal prosecutors have been sounding a similar message in the cases that have been brought so far.In a court filing last month seeking at least eight years in prison for Gordon, Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Storino said carjacking was an extraordinarily dangerous crime, one that traumatizes victims and risks lives, and that Gordon and his co-defendants committed it “for the fleeting enjoyment of driving a fancy car.”“Carjackings continue to represent a serious plague on the citizens of Chicago and the surrounding suburbs,” Storino wrote.The carjacking spree that Gordon was accused of participating in began in the early hours of July 20, 2018, in Hyde Park, where an Uber driver decided to pull over in the 5100 block of South Cornell Avenue and take a nap in his Prius.Around 3 a.m., the driver woke up with a black revolver shoved so closely to his face, “he looked down the barrel of the firearm and could see it was loaded with a bullet in the chamber,” prosecutors said in a court filing.As he complied with orders to get out of the car, one of the carjackers — later identified as Carter — pistol-whipped him on the forehead and top of his head, yelling, “Hurry (expletive) up,” prosecutors said.AdvertisementThe victim removed a pen from his pocket and stabbed one of the carjackers before running and flagging down a Chicago police officer as the offenders fled in the Prius, according to prosecutors.Several hours later, Gordon, Carter and Liberty were riding in the stolen Prius through an alley in the 1700 block of North Wolcott Avenue when a garage door opened and a man in his 30s emerged to throw out some garbage, court records show. The three stopped in the alley and jumped out with guns drawn, ordering the man to get on the ground.Prosecutors said Gordon the grabbed the man’s wife, who was eight months pregnant, pushed her against the Land Rover and pointed a gun at the back of her head. He then ordered her to lie on her stomach as he searched through her purse for the keys to the Land Rover. The victims called police after the carjackers fled in both vehicles.The Land Rover, which was equipped with GPS, was found abandoned on the South Side that afternoon. Police were at that scene when a report came in that the stolen Prius had smashed into a medical van transporting a blind woman a couple of miles away, according to court records.The woman driving the van said three young men had jumped out of the Prius and fled. Gordon, Carter and Liberty were arrested a short time later as they ran through a nearby alley.Records show Carter pleaded guilty to both carjackings and was sentenced to 8½ years in prison. Liberty pleaded guilty to just the heist of the Land Rover and received just over six years behind bars.AdvertisementIn his recent sentencing memo for Gordon, Storino, who serves as chief of violent crime prosecutions under Lausch, Chicago’s U.S. attorney, said the defendants’ actions heightened the potential for tragedy, even if it was unintentional.“A wrong move by any of the defendants could have resulted in serious injury or death,” Storino wrote.jmeisner@chicagotribune.com Advertisement

AdvertisementBy Chicago TribuneFeb 15, 2021 at 5:00 amOn a muggy morning in July 2018, Terronde Gordon and two friends were riding around in a hijacked Toyota Prius when they happened upon a husband and his pregnant wife in Bucktown getting ready to go to work.The crew stuck guns in the victims’ faces and forced the couple to lie on the ground before stealing their brand-new Land Rover, according to court records. Hours later, the crime spree ended at a South Side intersection when the joy riding trio crashed the stolen Prius into a medical van transporting a blind woman.AdvertisementNow,...

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Jason Meisner

The Chicago Tribune is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television are named), it remains the most-read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region. It had the 6th highest circulation for American newspapers in 2017.

Federal fight against carjackings brings tough sentences, but hurdles limit case count as violent heists mount in Chicago

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