District Man Found Guilty of Armed Carjacking and Related Charges for Using Craigslist to Lure His Victim Before Taking His Car at Gunpoint

U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Columbia
April 7, 2010

WASHINGTON—A Superior Court jury has found a 20-year-old District of Columbia man, Robert Johnson, guilty of carjacking a Maryland man at gunpoint while the victim held his 3-year-old son in his arms, U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr., Metropolitan Police Department Chief Cathy L. Lanier, and Shawn Henry, Assistant Director of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, announced today.

Johnson was found guilty today by a Superior Court jury of five counts—armed carjacking, armed robbery, assault with a dangerous weapon against a minor child, second degree cruelty to children, and receiving stolen property. The Honorable Ronna L. Beck presided over the trial. A sentencing date has not yet been set. Under the Superior Court Voluntary Sentencing Guidelines, the defendant faces a possible sentence of over 20 years in prison for these crimes.

The evidence at trial established that on February 8, 2009, Johnson responded to an ad the victim had posted on Craigslist, offering for sale his 2001 Oldsmobile Aurora with 22-inch custom chrome rims. Johnson lured the victim, who was in the Oldsmobile with his 3-year-old son, to a secluded street in Southeast Washington, D.C., by assuring the victim that Johnson could pay for the car and telling the victim that Johnson’s mother was at home where the victim eventually parked the car for Johnson’s inspection. Once the victim was parked on the secluded street, two gunmen joined Johnson and told the victim to give up his car. Johnson jumped in the driver’s seat and drove off with one of the gunmen in the victim’s car, leaving the victim and his son alone on the street with the second gunman. As the gunman walked the victim toward a wooded section of the street, pointing the gun at the victim and his son the entire time, the victim begged the gunman not to point the gun at the 3-year-old boy. Finally, the victim was able to step in front of a moving car that was coming down the street and asked the driver to get him out of the neighborhood. Johnson was arrested on February 12, 2009, driving his mother’s Cadillac STS— with the victim’s custom rims on the Cadillac.

In announcing the guilty verdict, U.S. Attorney Machen, MPD Chief Lanier, and FBI Assistant Director in Charge Henry expressed their appreciation to the Metropolitan Police Department’s and the FBI’s joint carjacking task force, and particularly praised the work of D.C. Metropolitan Police Detective Joseph Radvansky. They also commended the work of Paralegal Antoinette Sakamsa. Finally, they commended Assistant U.S. Attorneys Suzanne Clement Libby and Todd Gee, who indicted the case, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Scott Sroka and Allison Barlotta, who prosecuted it at trial.