Bergen County, New Jersey, Man Sentenced To Three Years In Prison For Violent North Jersey Carjacking

U.S. Attorney’s Office
District of New Jersey
11 April 2018

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NEWARK, N.J. – A Waldwick, New Jersey, man was sentenced today to 36 months in prison for carjacking a taxi and striking the victim on the head with a beer bottle, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced.

Arlyn Jowany Carrasco Cruz, 28, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Jose L. Linares to an information charging him with one count of carjacking. Judge Linares imposed the sentence today in Newark federal court.

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

In the early morning hours of Dec. 26, 2016, Cruz and at least five others forcibly took a 2008 Dodge Caravan from a taxicab driver. Cruz and the others forced the taxicab driver into the back of the vehicle and took over driving. As they drove toward Waldwick, Cruz struck the victim in the head with a beer bottle before being let out of the cab.

After dropping Cruz off, the others continued driving the cab to New York, and one individual caused further serious bodily injury to the victim by slicing his throat with a knife before leaving him on the side of the New York State Thruway near Woodbury, New York. The taxicab driver survived.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Linares sentenced Cruz to three years of supervised release.

U.S. Attorney Carpenito credited special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge Bradley W. Cohen in Newark, investigators from the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Acting Prosecutor Dennis Calo, and the Ridgewood and Hawthorne Police Departments with the investigation leading to today’s sentencing.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Elaine K. Lou and Karen D. Stringer of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Criminal Division in Newark.

Defense counsel: Susan C. Cassell Esq., Ridgewood, New Jersey

Press Release Number:
18-144