Essex County Man Convicted of Carjacking

U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of New Jersey
March 4, 2014

NEWARK—An Essex County, New Jersey man has been convicted on all counts in connection with a March 2012 carjacking, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced today.

Anthony Jefferson, 21, of Newark, was convicted of one count of conspiracy, one count of carjacking, and one count of brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a carjacking following a five-day trial before U.S. District Judge Kevin McNulty in Newark federal court. The jury deliberated two hours before returning the guilty verdicts on March 3, 2014.

According to documents filed in this case and the evidence at trial:

On the morning of March 11, 2012, Jefferson and Sharod Culp, 21, of Newark, approached two individuals who were sitting in a parked 2009 Hyundai Sonata in the area of Patterson Street in Newark. Culp pointed a firearm at the victims, and both Culp and Jefferson ordered the victims to get out the car. After robbing and taunting the victims, Culp and Jefferson fled the area in the carjacked vehicle.

After the carjacked vehicle was recovered, it was processed for evidence, and latent fingerprints identified to be those of Culp and Jefferson were found inside the vehicle. Both victims positively identified Culp as one of the people who carjacked them; one of the victims also identified Jefferson to be the other person who carjacked them. Culp pleaded guilty in July 2013 to carjacking and brandishing a weapon in furtherance of a carjacking and is awaiting sentencing.

The charge of carjacking carries a maximum potential penalty of 15 years in prison. The charge of use of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence carries a maximum potential penalty of life in prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of seven years in prison, which must run consecutively to any other prison term. Each of the two counts also carries a maximum fine of $250,000. Sentencing will be scheduled at a later date.

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

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Robert Frazer and Elizabeth Harris of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Newark.