Teenage Defendant Sentenced to 18 Years in Prison for Armed Carjacking and Robbery

WASHINGTON—Andre Fisher, 17, was sentenced today by the Honorable Ronna L. Beck to 18 years in prison on charges stemming from a carjacking and a robbery, U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. announced. The sentencing follows two separate trials that ended with guilty verdicts earlier this year in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.

In one trial, a jury found Fisher guilty of armed carjacking, armed robbery, possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, carrying a pistol without a license, possession of an unregistered firearm, and unlawful possession of ammunition, for carjacking two District residents at gunpoint in November 2009 in Southeast Washington.

In the other, a jury found him guilty of robbery and offenses committed during release, for robbing a District woman, also last November, of her iPhone in Northwest Washington.

The evidence at the carjacking trial established that on November 5, 2009, Fisher and another suspect approached a man and woman as they sat talking in their car at the corner of First and Chesapeake Streets SE. Fisher tapped on the passenger side window with a handgun, ordered the male victim out of the car, and then robbed him, taking his wallet and approximately $200 in cash. The female victim exited the driver side of her vehicle after being ordered to keep her keys in the car. Fisher and the second suspect then got in the car and drove off, with the victims’ personal belongings in the car and with Fisher in the driver’s seat.

About two hours later, members of the Metropolitan Police Department located the car in the parking lot of an apartment building and stationed undercover officers to watch the vehicle. Officers observed Fisher and another individual get into the car, and undercover officers followed them out of the parking lot and north on Martin Luther King Avenue SW. Fisher and the second suspect bailed out of the car on Chesapeake Street SW and fled on foot once officers identified themselves as the police. Fisher was arrested hiding behind a townhouse on Danbury Street, and was found wearing a jacket that one of the victims had left in the carjacked vehicle.

The second trial stemmed from a robbery on November 21, 2009. The evidence established that the defendant and several others drove a car that had been carjacked earlier in Maryland to U Street NW, where Fisher jumped out and robbed a woman of her iPhone. Fisher and his accomplices led the police on a high-speed chase through downtown Washington until Fisher and the other suspects bailed out of the vehicle at a gas station on M Street NW, near Georgetown. Fisher and the suspects then fled on foot and were apprehended after a chase by the police.

In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Machen expressed his appreciation to the Metropolitan Police Department and the FBI/MPD Violent Crimes Task Force, and particularly praised the work of MPD Detectives James Francis, Michael Day, Neil Jones, and Edwina Williams. U.S. Attorney Machen also commended the work of Paralegal Antoinette Sakamsa and Victim Advocate James Brennan. Finally, he commended Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Sroka, who indicted both cases and prosecuted them at trial, and Assistant U.S. Attorney William Woodruff, who also prosecuted the carjacking case at trial.