The U.S. Department of Justice said on Friday that four D.C. males have been charged federally with carjacking 33 vehicles in the District and Maryland during a six-month period, including one case that resulted in death.
Investigators think they have uncovered a sophisticated and well-organized carjacking plot that operated from December 2022 to June 2023, as detailed in a 49-page federal indictment. The plan was discovered through an undercover police investigation.
The four guys allegedly planned to steal the cars at gunpoint and then sell them, according to court filings. After being cleaned up, photographed, and put up for sale on an Instagram account, the stolen cars would eventually find their way to a garage on Florida Avenue NE. A few of the high-end vehicles that were pilfered were selling for as little as $1,500.
Two defendants, 19-year-old Cedae Hardy and 19-year-old Keyonte Rice, were accused of shooting and killing Melvin Mayorga Hernandez in Hyattsville, Maryland, in January 2023 during one of the carjackings.
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In addition, Hardy and Rice are accused with many firearms and carjacking offenses.
Along with multiple allegations of carjacking, the other two defendants, 19-year-old Landrell Jordan and 20-year-old Malik Norman, are also accused of flashing a pistol during a violent crime.
Right present, all four defendants are being held. If found guilty, the other suspects in Mayorga Hernandez’s death case might spend decades behind bars, while the two charged with her murder could spend up to life in jail.
The allegations came about as a consequence of a lengthy FBI investigation. The case involved help from the D.C. police as well as other local law enforcement organizations.
