A 21-year-old city man was sentenced Friday on carjacking-related charges stemming from an incident early last year in which a group of men stole a car at gunpoint then led police on a wild chase that resulted in several other cars being damaged, US Attorney Paul Fishman announced.
James Conover had previously admitted that he and his co-conspirators were driving in the city on Jan. 12, 2011, when they spotted a Dodge Durango. The group, armed with a 12-gauge shotgun, briefly tailgated the Durango, forcing it to pull over, then boxed it in with their own vehicle before forcing the driver out at gunpoint and driving off in the vehicle themselves.
City police pursued the Durango, which was stopped after crashing into several cars at an intersection.
Conover was sentenced to 181 months in prison plus five years of supervised release.
Multiple law enforcement agencies have teamed up to address a sharp rise in carjackings plaguing Essex County and Newark in particular during the last few years. Carjackers, like Conover, now often face federal charges.
Carjacking has exploded in recent years, with the vast majority of the state’s incidents occurring in Newark. Each year between 2006 and 2009, there were anywhere between about 208 and 250 carjackings statewide, a number that jumped to 359 in 2010. Three-quarters of those occurred in Essex County.
In 2011, Newark reported 337 carjackings, a jump from the 290 reported the previous year.
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