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Authorities in D.C. announced a sweeping indictment Monday of 10 people accused of at least a dozen carjackings and attempted carjackings in the city and parts of Maryland since 2022.
In an effort to crack down on one of the District’s fastest-growing crimes, prosecutors said, while half of the defendants were under 18 at the time of their alleged crimes and could have been charged as juveniles, they have instead been charged as adults.
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“Carjackings are among the most violent crimes we prosecute,” Matthew M. Graves, the U.S. attorney for the District, said at a news briefing. “The overwhelming majority arrested for carjackings are juveniles, and many of the adults are themselves teenagers. To teenagers fueling these crimes: Know that there is no such thing as a ‘free ride.’ Masks will not protect you. We will track you down.”
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Federal prosecutors charged three men in U.S. District Court with 33 counts, including conspiracy to commit carjacking, carrying a firearm during a crime of violence and interstate transportation of a stolen vehicle. Seven defendants were charged in D.C. Superior Court with 19 crimes, including conspiracy, armed carjacking of a senior citizen and robbery while armed.
The nation’s capital has witnessed a dramatic increase in armed car thefts. There have been more than 930 carjackings reported in D.C. so far in 2023, up from 451 in the same period last year, according to D.C. police data. Of the 167 cases that have resulted in an arrest this year, juveniles made up 62 percent of those charged, the data show.
Carjackings in the D.C. region have increased every year since 2018, according to a Washington Post analysis of data from area police departments. The District, Maryland and Virginia reported more than 200 carjackings in 2018, a number that swelled to more than 1,000 by the end of 2022. Carjackings — which involve violence or the threat of violence and are different from unoccupied cars being stolen — have become so prevalent in the District that they became a political talking point as Congress debated D.C.’s crime and policing bills.
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Graves said evidence linking the 10 defendants includes a social media chat in which they referred to themselves as GTAIRL, which he said was an abbreviation for Grand Theft Auto In Real Life, a reference to the popular video game. Graves said the defendants used the chat to buy and sell the stolen vehicles. Some vehicles, he said, also were used to commit other car thefts or crimes.
“This is not a game,” Graves said. “This is the real world, with serious crimes being committed by juveniles.”
At a news conference with D.C. Police Chief Pamela A. Smith and Assistant Director David Sundberg of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, Graves blamed the increase of juveniles involved in such crimes partly on a D.C. law known as the Youth Rehabilitation Act, which allows judges in Superior Court to sentence youths who were ages 15 to 24 at the time of their offenses to shorter prison sentences. And their convictions can be expunged after they are released from prison and don’t reoffend in a specified period of time.
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Armed carjacking in D.C. is punishable by a minimum of 15 years, Graves said. But many Superior Court judges, he said, often sentence individuals to less than half the maximum sentence if the defendant’s attorney requests their client be sentenced based on the Youth Rehabilitation Act.
Graves said he hoped the D.C. Council would update the law to eliminate giving judges the ability to reduce sentences, specifically for those who have multiple charges or prior convictions.
“These are not impetuous crimes by a child who lost control,” Graves said. “These are dangerous adult crimes.”
Smith said D.C. police, prosecutors and federal officials combined resources that resulted in the arrests. “We are holding people who commit crimes accountable for their actions, and it does not matter their age,” Smith said.
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Earlier this year, members of Congress and city officials criticized Graves’s office for declining to prosecute as many as 67 percent of those arrested by police in criminal cases last year that would have been tried in D.C. Superior Court. That was more than double the amount of cases in 2015. In October, the office said it had increased the number of prosecuted cases, reducing the number of declined cases during most recent fiscal year to 56 percent.
On Monday, prosecutors charged Cedae Hardy, Landrell Jordan III and Malik Norman, all 19 and of the District, with federal charges including conspiracy to commit carjacking, using a firearm during a crime of violence and other crimes in District Court.
In Superior Court, prosecutors charged Jaelen Jordan, 18, and Warren Montgomery, 19, both of the District; and Prince George’s County, Md., residents Isaiah Flowers, 18; Jahkai Goff, 19; Taj Giles, 18; Irshaad Ellis-Bey, 18; and Byron Gillum, also known as Bryon Gillum, 18, with multiple crimes, including armed carjacking, conspiracy and robbery of a senior citizen.
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