Moorestown Man Sentenced to 264 Months in Federal Prison for Committing Two Carjackings and an Armed Bank Robbery

U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of New Jersey
September 25, 2009

CAMDEN—A Moorestown man was sentenced to 264 months in federal prison today for committing carjackings in Burlington and Camden counties and an armed bank robbery in Moorestown, Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph J. Marra, Jr., announced.

U.S. District Judge Jerome B. Simandle also ordered William Berger, 37, to pay $1,392 in restitution and to serve five years of supervised release upon the completion of his prison term.

On June 8, 2009, Berger pleaded guilty before Judge Simandle to two counts of carjacking, one count of bank robbery and one count of use of a firearm in furtherance of a violent crime.

At his plea hearing, Berger admitted that on Dec. 11, 2008, he approached a woman outside a Dollar Tree store located in Moorestown and pointed a .38 caliber Smith and Wesson revolver at the woman’s chest and demanded her car keys. After the woman surrendered her keys, Berger fled in the victim’s Chevrolet Cobalt, he admitted.

Berger admitted that on Dec. 13, he drove the stolen vehicle to a gas station in Pennsauken and had the attendant gas up the vehicle before driving away without paying for the gas.

Berger further admitted that on Dec. 15, he entered a Liberty Bank branch, located on Camden Ave. in Moorestown, and placed a black handgun on the teller’s counter and demanded money. Berger admitted that he fled the bank with approximately $1,300 and drove off in the stolen Cobalt. The car was subsequently abandoned and recovered in Camden.

On Dec. 27, Berger approached an elderly woman in the parking lot of a Walmart store in Cherry Hill and demanded her car keys while brandishing a knife, he admitted. Berger then fled the parking lot in the victim’s car. Shortly thereafter, Cherry Hill Police broadcasted a description of the vehicle to surrounding police departments. Later that same day, Camden Police Officers observed the stolen vehicle being operated by Berger in the same area where the Cobalt had been recovered. The vehicle was stopped by police and Berger was arrested on outstanding warrants.

In determining the actual sentence, Judge Simandle consulted the advisory U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, which provide appropriate sentencing ranges that take into account the severity and characteristics of the offense, the defendant's criminal history, if any, and other factors. The judge, however, is not bound by those guidelines in determining a sentence.

Parole has been abolished in the federal system. Defendants who are given custodial terms must serve nearly all that time.

Marra credited Special Agents of the FBI’s Trenton Resident Agency, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Weysan Dun in Newark, the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Prosecutor Robert D. Bernardi, the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Prosecutor Warren Faulk, the Camden Police Department, under the direction of Chief Scott Thomson, and the Moorestown Police Department, under the direction of Harry Johnson, Director, with the investigation.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Richardson in the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Camden.