Mobile County Man Sentenced to 240 Months in Prison for Two Carjacking Crimes, Two Possession of a Firearm During a Crime of Violence Crimes and Ordered to Pay Restitution in the Amount of $21,000.00 |
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U.S. Attorney’s Office
Southern District of Alabama
29 June 2018
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The United States Attorney, Richard W. Moore, announces that, Jaquail Busby, a 26 year old resident of Mobile, Alabama was sentenced to 240 months of incarceration for a carjacking that occurred on January, 5 2017, a carjacking that occurred on April 13, 2017, and separate convictions for possession of a firearm in furtherance of each carjacking. He was also ordered to pay $21,000.00 in restitution to Easy Money Store located on Dauphin Island Parkway in Mobile, Alabama.
According to the factual statement Busby signed in connection with his guilty plea, on January 5, 2017, Busby took by force and threats of death the vehicle of R.W. using a firearm. Busby and an accomplice followed R.W. around Mobile in a vehicle as she traveled home from work in her Mazda. At the opportune time, Busby jumped out of the vehicle he was traveling in with a handgun after his vehicle cut in front of the Mazda. Busby beat on the window with the handgun and told R.W. to unlock the door. When she hesitated, he fired two shots into the air. R.W. then opened the door and Busby got into the back seat of the Mazda and told R.W. to drive. He continued to threaten R.W. as she drove to a local cemetery. After several hours, Busby told R.W to drive back to her place of employment - Easy Money located on Dauphin Island Parkway – because he intended to steal money from the business. R.W. complied. When they arrived at Easy Money, Busby stole approximately $21,000 from R.W. Busby then ordered R.W. to drive him to another location in Mobile and he then exited her vehicle and threw her keys away. R.W. retrieved the keys and called the police.
On April 13, 2017, Jaquail Busby and Calvin Harris devised a plan to steal money from Easy Money, a local title loan business. The plan included using an unknowing employee of the business. Later that day, J. P. (Easy Money employee/ victim) left Easy Money, located at 7740 Airport Blvd, Mobile, AL at about 9:00pm, got into her vehicle for the drive home. Unbeknownst to her, Harris and Busby were following her in Harris’ vehicle. After she had been driving about 15 minutes, Harris drove his vehicle around in front of J. P’s. vehicle and positioned it to where she had to stop or hit Harris’ vehicle. She chose to stop.
Busby then exited the vehicle and beat on her window with a firearm, telling J. P. to open the door. When she complied, Busby then told the victim to get out of the car, then ordered her back in the car, and Busby got in the rear driver side seat. Harris then sped away. As J. P. drove slowly on the city streets, Busby fired a shot out the window and told her to drive the speed limit. Busby forced J. P. to drive into an old cemetery. Busby told her to pull to the back and park facing out.
Busby then told J. P. to call her husband and tell him that she was staying with her mother. J. P. told Busby that if she called her husband, he would not believe her and Busby became angry and fired a second shot in the air. Busby then told J. P. to call her husband and tell him that she had to stay with her mother. Busby told J. P. that if she did not make the call that his associates would kill everyone there including her grandchild. Busby communicated with Harris via cell phone and told Harris to shoot anyone who came to the house. J. P. stated that throughout the night she kept praying that Busby would not kill her and tried to talk to him in an attempt to keep him calm.
At approximately 6:30am the next day, J. P. and Busby left the cemetery and drove back to Easy Money. During the drive, Busby and Harris communicated again and this time via text messages. In the text messages, Busby sought confirmation that the coast was clear to return to the business and steal the approximately $12,000 that was in the safe. Harris confirmed in return text messages that he would be positioned outside of Easy Money looking out to make sure no police were in sight. When they arrived, Busby told J. P. that they were going to sit outside until 7:00am because he knew that's what time she had to be in the store and that was 30 minutes before the timer on the safe would unlock. At 7:00am, Busby told J.P. to go inside and sit at the desk directly in front of where they parked so he could watch her.
At approximately 7:25am, J. P.’s co-worker, B. J. (the second victim) arrived at the location and was confronted by Busby who forced her inside at gunpoint and then made both of them go into the room where the safe was located. Once inside the room, Busby realized that he did not have his cellphone to communicate with Harris so he told J. P. to go get it from her vehicle. Busby told J. P. if she did anything funny he would blow B. J.’s brains out. When J. P. walked outside, a police car simultaneously pulled in the parking lot so she ran over to the vehicle and began explaining to an officer what was happening. Busby saw the police outside, and fled the scene in J. P.’s vehicle leaving the gun in his haste. A K9 Officer was dispatched to the location to track Busby. Busby was located a short time later hiding under a house. He was arrested and confessed giving written permission to search his cell phone Texts on his cell phone between he and Harris discussing the robbery and kidnapping were located. Busby pled guilty on January 25, 2018.
Officers of the Mobile, AL Police Department along with special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated the case and presented it to the United States Attorney’s Office for prosecution. The prosecutor assigned to the case was Assistant United States Attorney, Gina S. Vann.