Two Birmingham Men Sentenced for February Carjacking

U.S. District Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn this week sentenced two Birmingham men for a February carjacking in the parking lot of a drugstore on West Valley Avenue in Homewood, U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance announced.

On Thursday, Blackburn sentenced Stephen L. Parker, 24, to nine years and two months in prison and Kedric Earl Buie, 19, to 12 years and eight months in prison for approaching a woman in the store parking lot, demanding her keys, forcing her into the backseat of the car at gunpoint, and stealing her Toyota 4-Runner.

Both men pleaded guilty in June to taking a vehicle by force and intimidation and to using a firearm during the crime. The May indictment cited two guns the men used in the carjacking, a Hi-Point 9mm pistol and a Cobra .380 pistol.

Vance praised the work of the Homewood, Irondale, and Birmingham police departments and FBI special agents, which led to the arrests and prosecution in the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney L. James Weil, Jr., prosecuted the case on behalf of the United States.