10 teens arrested for series of carjackings, some armed robberies across DC, Maryland: DOJ

WASHINGTON (7News) The U.S. Department of Justice indicted 10 teens for their alleged involvement in a series of carjackings in Washington, D.C. -- some linked to Prince George's County and Montgomery County, according to U.S. Attorney for District of Columbia Matt Graves.

The U.S. Department of Justice indicted 10 teens for their alleged involvement in a series of carjackings in Washington, D.C. -- some linked to Prince George's County and Montgomery County, according to U.S. Attorney for District of Columbia Matt Graves.

Now, the DOJ is calling for juveniles who commit serious crimes, such as armed carjacking, to be charged as an adult.

According to Graves, the average sentence for one armed carjacking is 15 years. However, with D.C.'s Youth Rehabilitation Act, juveniles with offenses are not required to meet the mandatory minimum sentence.

Since 2018, judges have been allowed to avoid imposing the mandatory minimum for armed carjacking for anyone who was under the age of 25 at the time of the offense.

"We need to have a serious response to let people know that this is not a game. This is a real-world and there will be real-world consequences," said Graves.

Graves said the teens charged in the DOJ's two indictments are linked to at least 15 carjackings in the region.

According to FBI Assistant Director In Charge David Sunberg, the victims included a dentist on her way to work, a mother buckling her children in front of a school, and a food delivery driver making their last delivery of the evening.

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"It didn't matter what day or time of day or in what neighborhood," Sunberg added.

D.C. Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Kathy Henderson feels the Youth Rehabilitation Act may mean well but handcuffs judges' discretion for individual crimes, arguing 24 is too old of a cap to be considered a juvenile.

"They're not even fully developed and yet they’re committing these heinous acts," she said. "That's the debate, but while we're debating that academically, while we're sitting around talking about what's best for children and our city, we also need to stop them."

Henderson told 7News she wants police to step up their patrols and for the National Guard to step in. "We can't simply say, well, we don't have the wherewithal to stop your car from being stolen, but here take this air tag and hopefully you can find it," she said, referring to MPD's air tag distribution events. "We're not doing enough."

Three of the 10 teens were charged with a criminal conspiracy and linked to 13 carjackings, and seven of them were charged with three armed carjackings and other crimes. Graves said it was discovered that it was two separate carjacking rings with some overlapping with the various carjackings. Authorities are expecting others to be charged as part of the conspiracy.

On Friday, a lead defendant in a federal indictment was charged with six carjackings and has been detained since June. The superseding indictment also charges him with an additional five; one where he allegedly shot a victim. He was charged with conspiring with two other individuals to carjack vehicles and sell or use them for other crimes, Graves said.

One of those additional teens was charged with orchestrating four of the carjackings and the other individual was charged with participating in two of the carjackings.

The teen charged with orchestrating it was arrested on November 28 and will remain in jail pending trial. The other teen was arrested on December 8 and is held pending a detention hearing scheduled for Tuesday.

READ | MPD reports over 900 carjackings in DC so far this year after Thanksgiving incidents

In total, the federal superseding indictment alleges 13 cars were carjacked in connection with the conspiracy, and the three teens are collectively charged with 11 separate charges of carjacking.

Graves said an additional two carjackings happened outside D.C.

The indictment in the superior court led to the arrest of an individual who was 17 years old at the time. On May 17, he was charged with two carjackings at the time of his arrest. In this case, the DOJ was able to enact Title 16 to charge him as an adult. This led investigators to identify a larger conspiracy which led to the arrest of two other teens. These two teens were arrested on Oct. 10. One of the teens was 17 years old at the time of the alleged crime and the DOJ was able to use Title 16 to charge him as an adult.

Evidence led authorities to additional teens linked to the conspiracy and identified four more teens. Graves said they were also able to charge them as adults under Title 16.

MORE | DC launches pilot program offering free vehicle tracking tags after carjackings skyrocket

"In a prior press conference, I noticed that in our experience, it is uncommon for a defendant to commit just one robbery or one carjacking and never commit either offense again, absent a subsequent arrest," said Graves. "The allegations in cases like these are why we hold this belief. I also previously noted that a majority of the individuals arrested for robberies and a super majority of individuals arrested for carjackings are juveniles. I previously explained that I have instructed our career supervisors to strongly consider prosecuting juveniles as adults when they are involved in a series of armed carjackings or armed robberies. These are not the impetuous crimes of a child who temporarily lost control. They are the calculated crime of someone willing to hold a gun to someone's head for life for money or property."

According to Sunberg, this is the largest carjacking indictment this year.

"Whoever's telling you [juveniles] that these carjacked vehicles are free cars, that there won't be consequences if you're caught, that you won't get caught if you're wearing a mask is lying to you. We will track you down and aggressively pursue the charges that fit the crime in our continuing effort to make the community safe, including charging juveniles as adults and bringing Federal offenses and federal charges were appropriate," Graves added.

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