Newark Man Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison for Three Armed Carjackings

U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of New Jersey
July 17, 2014

NEWARK, NJ—A Newark man was sentenced today to 240 months in prison for his role in three armed carjackings that occurred in one day in Newark and Jersey City, New Jersey, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Louis Holmes, 25, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Claire C. Cecchi to an information charging him with three counts of carjacking and one count of brandishing a firearm during the course of a violent crime. Judge Cecchi imposed the sentence today in Newark federal court.

According to documents filed in this case and in statements made in court:

Holmes admitted he participated with several other men in three carjackings that were committed in Newark and Jersey City on March 27, 2012. He said they agreed to take vehicles from their victims by force. Holmes also admitted that during the first carjacking, which occurred in Newark, he left the vehicle that he was traveling in with the other men, approached the targeted car’s driver, pointed a handgun at the driver and ordered the driver to exit the vehicle and leave the keys inside. Before driving away in the car, he robbed the driver and the passenger of their personal effects, including their cell phones.

Holmes also admitted that, in the second carjacking, which occurred in Jersey City, he again approached the car’s driver, pointed a handgun at the driver and threatened the driver by demanding his wallet and car keys. He then also pointed the handgun at the vehicle’s passenger, demanding the passenger exit the car, before driving away in the car. Holmes admitted that in the third carjacking, which was in Newark, he approached the driver of the car when the driver was outside the car, pointed a handgun at the driver, threatened the driver and demanded the car’s keys. Holmes then drove off in the third car.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Cecchi sentenced Holmes to five years of supervised release.

U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Aaron T. Ford; the Newark Police Department, under the leadership of Director Eugene Venable; the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Acting Prosecutor Carolyn A. Murray; and criminal investigators from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Newark for the investigation leading to today’s sentencing.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sara F. Merin, Courtney Oliva, and Lisa M. Colone of the General Crimes Unit in Newark.