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A Chicago anti-violence employee has been sentenced to 22 years in federal jail for a string of violent carjackings in West Englewood that left one sufferer shot and others threatened at gunpoint.
U.S. District Decide Lindsay C. Jenkins handed down the sentence for 23-year-old Jamari Edwards, who admitted in April to carjacking three folks throughout a single week in August 2022. Edwards additionally pleaded responsible to federal firearm costs tied to the crimes.
Prosecutors stated the primary hijacking occurred on August 6, 2022, within the drive-thru lane of a Dunkin’ Donuts. Edwards received into the passenger seat of a person’s automobile, pointed a gun, and ordered him out.
Because the sufferer walked away, prosecutors stated, Edwards requested the sufferer why he was not scared, then shot him within the leg. Moments later, Edwards circled again, frisked the wounded man at gunpoint, and took his pockets and telephone earlier than driving off within the sufferer’s automobile.
The sufferer struggled to get assist after close by companies and clients initially refused to name 911, and he ultimately reached a gasoline station worker who summoned an ambulance.
Two days later, Edwards confronted one other driver outdoors a gasoline station comfort retailer. He pressed a gun into the person’s again, frisked him for valuables, and when he couldn’t discover the keys, pulled the sufferer by the shirt towards the car, prosecutors stated. Edwards discovered the keys on the bottom and drove off.
Later that very same week, Edwards and an confederate focused a lady sitting within the driver’s seat on the identical gasoline station. Edwards allegedly pointed a gun at her head and informed her to get out of the automobile earlier than he would blow her brains out. When she hesitated, he yanked her out by her necklace, which snapped. Prosecutors stated he stole her purse, pockets, and telephone, then fled in her automobile.
In sentencing papers, prosecutors described Edwards’ conduct as brazen and escalating. They argued he not solely shot a sufferer after mocking his concern but in addition delayed the person’s medical care by taking his telephone.
The federal government sought a 293-month sentence, pointing to the necessity to deter others amid ongoing considerations about violent crime in Chicago.
The protection requested for the statutory obligatory minimal of 204 months. Of their memorandum, Edwards’ attorneys portrayed him as a younger man formed by hardship: raised with out a father in Englewood, caring for a mom with critical medical points together with most cancers, and devastated by the 2017 demise of a step-brother to whom he was shut.
They emphasised that Edwards had no prison historical past factors, labored with anti-violence teams CeaseFire, which they described as a company “devoted to stemming the violence that permeates by way of sure parts of Chicago,” and Crushers Membership, “a program designed to handle anger administration points with at-risk youth.”
Edwards apologized in a letter to the courtroom, saying he can not change what occurred and is working to change into a greater individual.
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