District Man Sentenced to 18 Years in Prison

Used Craigslist to Lure Victims Before Robbing Them at Gunpoint

WASHINGTON—Robert Johnson, 20, of the District of Columbia, was sentenced today to 18 years in prison for carjacking a Maryland man at gunpoint, while the victim held his three-year-old son in his arms, and for robbing two Maryland men at gunpoint and stealing their Toyota Land Cruiser, U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. announced. The attacks, involving victims found through ads on Craigslist, took place within a two-week period of 2009.

The Honorable Ronna L. Beck sentenced Johnson in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. The sentencing follows a trial in April in which a jury found Johnson guilty of armed carjacking, armed robbery, assault with a dangerous weapon against a minor child, second degree cruelty to children, and receiving stolen property in the case involving the father and son. Johnson also pled guilty in May to robbery in the case involving the attack on the two men.

The guilty verdict came in a trial that established that on February 8, 2009, Johnson responded to an ad the first victim had posted on Craigslist, offering for sale his 2001 Oldsmobile Aurora with 22-inch custom chrome rims. Johnson lured the victim, who was in the Oldsmobile with his three-year-old son, to a secluded street in Southeast Washington, by assuring the man that Johnson could pay for the car and telling the victim that Johnson’s mother was at the home where the victim eventually parked the car for Johnson’s inspection.

Once the victim was parked on the secluded street, two gunmen joined Johnson and forced the victim to give up his car. Johnson jumped in the driver’s seat and drove off with one of the gunmen in the victim’s car, leaving the victim and his three-year-old son alone on the street with the second gunman. As that gunman walked the victim toward a wooded section of the street, pointing the gun at the man and his son the entire time, the victim begged him not to point the weapon at the boy. Finally, the victim was able to step in front of a moving car that was coming down the street and convinced the driver to get him out of the neighborhood.

Johnson was arrested on February 12, 2009, driving his mother’s Cadillac STS – with the victim’s custom rims on the car.

Johnson’s guilty plea involved a January 27, 2009 incident in which he responded to a Craigslist ad placed by a Maryland man to sell a set of custom chrome automobile rims.

Johnson lured that victim and his friend to the same secluded street in Southeast Washington by offering them more money to transport the rims to Johnson’s house. Once the victims arrived, Johnson’s cohorts came out and began rolling the rims into a back alley. They forced the victims to get on their knees, frisked them, and robbed them. Johnson and his accomplices sent the victims out a back alley and took the Toyota Land Cruiser they drove there.

In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Machen expressed his appreciation to the Metropolitan Police Department’s and the FBI’s joint carjacking task force, and particularly praised the work of D.C. Metropolitan Police Detective Joseph Radvansky. U.S. Attorney Machen also commended the work of Paralegal Antoinette Sakamsa. Finally, he commended Assistant U.S. Attorneys Suzanne Clement Libby and Todd Gee, who indicted the case, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Scott Sroka and Allison Barlotta, who prosecuted it at trial.