Friday, April 19, 2024

Defendants Conspired to Carjack 33 Vehicles; One Attempted Carjacking Resulted in Death

            WASHINGTON – A 76-count superseding indictment was unsealed in U.S. District Court today charging four District men with conspiring to commit a total of 33 carjackings in Washington D.C. and Maryland between December 2022, and June 2023. The charges build on a previous superseding indictment that had charged three of the men with 33-counts covering a total of 11 carjackings. The most recent superseding indictment charges Cedae Hardy, 19, and newly added defendant Keyonte Rice, 19, with an attempted carjacking resulting in death where, during a failed January 4, 2023, carjacking, a 39-year-old man was shot and killed in the parking lot of an apartment complex in the 2600 block of Kirkwood Place in Hyattsville, Maryland. The suspect vehicle allegedly used in this homicide, which was taken in another armed carjacking on January 3, 2023 also allegedly committed by Hardy and Rice, was set on fire a few hours after the homicide.

            Additional charges include conspiracy to commit carjacking; carjacking; attempted carjacking resulting in serious bodily injury; brandishing a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence; conspiracy to commit arson; aiding and abetting; interstate transportation of a stolen vehicle; and possession, sale, or receipt of a stolen vehicle.

            The indictment was announced today by U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves, FBI Assistant Director in Charge David Sundberg of the Washington Field Office, and Chief Pamela A. Smith of the Metropolitan Police Department.

            According to the indictment, between December 2022 and June 2023, Cedae Hardy, 19, Landrell Jordan III, 19, Malik Norman, 20, and Keyonte Rice, 19, and other uncharged co‑conspirators, conspired to carjack victims of their vehicles at gunpoint around the District of Columbia and Maryland and to sell the carjacked vehicles for profit or use them in future carjackings. 

            All four of the defendants are charged with conspiracy to commit carjacking. Hardy, aka “Peso,” is charged, alone and with various members of the conspiracy, in 24 of the carjacking counts. In addition to the January 4, 2023, attempted carjacking resulting in death, alleged to have been committed by Hardy and Rice, Hardy is further charged with attempted carjacking resulting in serious bodily injury for an April 18, 2023, carjacking in Hyattsville, Maryland, in which Hardy allegedly shot a rideshare driver multiple times at close range.

LEAD CHARGES AS OF APRIL 19, 2024

All four defendants are in custody.

            Attempted carjacking resulting in death, as charged in this superseding indictment, carries a statutory maximum of life. Attempted carjacking resulting in serious bodily injury carries a statutory maximum of 25 years in prison. Carjacking carries a statutory maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. Brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence carries a mandatory minimum term of seven years in prison. Interstate transportation of a stolen vehicle and sale or receipt of a stolen vehicle each carry a statutory maximum of ten years in prison. Conspiracy to commit carjacking carries a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison. The charges also carry potential financial penalties. The maximum statutory sentence for federal offenses is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes only. The sentence imposed will be determined by the court based on the advisory Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

            This case is being investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office Violent Crimes Task Force and the Metropolitan Police Department Carjacking Task Force. Valuable assistance was provided by the Prince George’s County, Montgomery County, Takoma Park, and Hyattsville, Maryland, Police Departments. 

            The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Meredith Mayer-Dempsey and Paul V. Courtney, and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine Toth, of the Federal Major Crimes Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.

            An indictment is merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.