Man Sentenced to Prison for Carjacking of Senator’s Daughter |
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U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Columbia
July 20, 2010
WASHINGTON—A 25-year-old District of Columbia man, Steven Alston, was sentenced on Tuesday, July 20, 2010, to nine years of incarceration by the Honorable Judge Robert E. Morin after pleading guilty in April in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia to carjacking and assault with significant bodily injury, announced U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. In December 2009, Alston and another man, Dewalden Connor, carjacked the daughter of United States Senator Robert Corker (TN).
At the plea hearing in April 2010, Alston admitted that on December 2, 2009, he and Connor sought out a person to carjack and went to the area of Gallery Place in downtown Washington to find a victim. The men spotted the victim, 22, in the 700 block of D Street NW, sitting in her parked SUV on the side of the road. First, Connor approached the SUV and distracted her. Then, while she was distracted, Alston approached the driver’s side of the car, opened the door and ordered the victim from the vehicle. When she did not respond to him, Alston reached into the vehicle, grabbed the victim by her throat, choked her, and threw her to the ground. Alston and Connor then drove off in the truck.
Using OnStar vehicle tracking technology, law enforcement agents located the stolen vehicle in Seat Pleasant, Maryland. When the police approached the vehicle, about an hour after the carjacking, Alston was still sitting in the driver’s seat of the SUV.
Connor, 22, who pled guilty to Robbery in March, is scheduled to be sentenced before Judge Morin on Thursday, July 22, 2010.
In announcing today’s sentence, U.S. Attorney Machen commended Metropolitan Police Department Detectives Jeffery Clay and Chanel Howard, who investigated the case, and FBI Agent Michael Pinto, who assisted in the investigation. He also recognized the dedicated work of U.S. Attorney’s Office Victim Advocate Jennifer Clark for her outstanding assistance in the case. Lastly, he commended Assistant U.S. Attorney Reagan M. Taylor, who investigated and prosecuted the case.