Newark Man Pleads Guilty to Carjacking
| U.S. Attorney’s Office August 14, 2013 |
NEWARK, NJ—A Newark man today admitted his role in a shotgun carjacking in Little Falls, New Jersey, on October 30, 2011, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
Hanzah Darby, 24, pleaded guilty to an indictment charging him with one count of theft of a motor vehicle by force, violence, and intimidation and one count of use of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. He entered his guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton in Newark federal court.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
During his guilty plea proceeding, Darby admitted that on October 30, 2011, he and another individual were in the Little Falls area when they spotted a parked 2008 BMW 335 with passengers inside. Darby and his conspirator—who allegedly brandished a shotgun—approached the car and ordered the occupants out of the vehicle at gunpoint.
Ivan Lee, 25, of Newark, is charged with Darby in the indictment, and the charges against him remain pending.
Darby and Lee then took the car and fled the area. Law enforcement officers recovered the car in Newark on November 7, 2011. Darby was standing next to it at the time.
The carjacking charge to which Darby pleaded guilty carries a maximum potential penalty of 15 years in prison. The firearm charge 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 $250,000 fine. Sentencing is currently scheduled for November 18, 2013.
U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents with the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Aaron T. Ford in Newark; officers of the Little Falls Police Department, under the direction of Chief John Dmuchowski; the New Jersey State Police, under the direction of Colonel Rick Fuentes; and the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Prosecutor Camelia M. Valdes, with the investigation leading to today’s plea.
The government is represented by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas S. Kearney of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Newark.
As for Lee, the charges and allegations contained in the indictment against him are merely allegations, and the defendant is considered innocent unless and until proven guilty.