FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT
AUSA VICKIE E. LEDUC or
MARCIA MURPHY at 410-209-4885
May 27, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TWO BALTIMORE MEN SENTENCED TO 9½ YEARS
FOR ARMED CARJACKING
Baltimore, Maryland - U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett sentenced Keith Dorsey, age 22, of Baltimore, today to 114 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for carjacking and using a gun during the carjacking. Judge Bennett sentenced co-defendant Kenard Lawson, age 19, also of Baltimore, yesterday to the same sentence for the same offenses.
The sentences were announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Theresa R. Stoop of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives - Baltimore Field Division; Baltimore City State’s Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy; and Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III.
According to their guilty pleas, on March 21, 2009, Lawson and two others entered a liquor store on South Charles Street in Baltimore. One of the robbers pointed a semiautomatic handgun at the owner and hit him in the head with the weapon. The robber removed cash from the cash register and from a cash box in the rear of the store. A robber also took a semi-automatic pistol from the owner and gave it to Lawson. At some later time, Lawson gave the gun he obtained during the March 21 robbery to Dorsey.
On April 13, Dorsey used the gun to order a driver of a Toyota Camry to drive Dorsey and Lawson to Greenmount Avenue. The victim offered to give Lawson and Dorsey the keys to his car, but the defendants compelled the victim to drive them. Dorsey sat in the front passenger seat, pointing the gun at the victim, while Lawson sat in the rear of the car, instructing the victim to follow their orders.
When the car stopped at a red light at the intersection of North Avenue and Mount Royal Avenue, the victim saw a marked Baltimore Police Department cruiser. The victim opened the driver’s side door, rolled out of the car, stood up and ran toward the police officers, exclaiming, “they got a gun, they got a gun.” As the car drifted forward — the victim had left the vehicle in drive — Lawson opened the rear passenger side door and fled, shedding a sweat jacket he had been wearing. Dorsey also fled from the vehicle, dropping the gun as he ran.
A short time later, the victim approached a law enforcement officer and pointed out Dorsey, who had circled back to Mount Royal Avenue. Dorsey was detained. Lawson was also apprehended a few blocks away.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commended Assistant United States Attorney Thiruvendran Vignarajah, who prosecuted the case.