Early in the day, before the crimes happened in this true crime case, the primary perpetrator in the crime stopped by a friend’s home to smoke some PCP. He showed the friend his sawed-off shotgun and told him he planned to rob someone that night.
Two men began their evening of crime by stealing a Jaguar, then saw a woman sitting on a curb crying. Because she was drunk, she’d called for a car from a transportation company. The passenger helped her into the Jaguar. It was around two o’clock in the morning.
They drove to an ATM and noticed two women parked at the machine. They were restaurant servers depositing the cash they’d earned that night. Using the shotgun to intimidate, the two men demanded the money and forced the women back into their car. One man drove the car with the two women in it and one man drove the Jaguar with the other woman still inside.
They held the three women against their will in the vehicles and forced them to withdraw as much money from ATMs as they could. They also forced the women to smoke PCP while they drove around for hours. The two cars were caravanning through the city. A police officer recognized the stolen Jaguar and engaged in a high-speed pursuit. The driver of the Jaguar lost control and crashed. He then fled on foot, leaving the uninjured woman behind. The authorities apprehended him a short time later.
The man driving the car with the two women continued his search for drugs and money. He stopped at a convenience store and one woman in his car jumped out of the car and called the police. As the mayhem erupted, the woman remaining in the car escaped and ran down the street with the abductor on her heels. The chase ended when the woman pressed the panic button on her key fob. She found a good Samaritan who called the police.
A U.S. Attorney associated with this case said,
“During the entirety of this time, the victims were consistently threatened with death and bodily harm while the defendants pointed the sawed-off shotgun in the victims’ direction.”
The system tried both men together. After a four-day trial, the jury found them guilty on 17 counts that included #kidnapping, #robbery, and #terrorizing the women.
The judge sentenced the man who planned the crime to four life terms in prison (he had prior convictions). The same judge sentenced the man who had taken part in the crime to sixty years.
Source: U.S. Court of Appeals, United States Department of Justice, FOX 4