DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

Acting United States Attorney Edward R. Ryan
Western District of North Carolina

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TUESDAY, APRIL 14, 2009

CONTACT: Suellen Pierce
704.338.3120
Fax: 704.227.0264

PETER J. SMITH SENTENCED TO 59 YEARS IN FEDERAL PRISON Smith Convicted at Trial on Carjacking, Kidnaping, and Federal Firearms Violations CHARLOTTE, NC—Peter James Smith, 52, formerly of Brooklyn, New York, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Charlotte to serve a federal prison sentence of 324 months plus 384 months’ imprisonment in connection with his use of a gun and other threats to carjack and kidnap two victims–one in Rock Hill, SC and the other in Charlotte–in December of 2007 and January of 2008. At a February 2009 federal jury trial, Smith was found guilty on two counts of the federal crime of carjacking; two counts of kidnaping; and three separate counts charging violations of the federal firearms statutes.

Today’s announcement is made by Acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, Edward R. Ryan; Zebedee T. Graham, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), Charlotte Field Division; and Chief Rodney Monroe of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD).

The government’s case against Peter J. Smith was brought in April 2008 and additional charges were obtained in U.S. District Court in a second superseding bill of indictment in January 2009. The federal prosecution was based on crimes committed by the defendant from December 30, 2007 to January 3, 2008 in and around the Charlotte area. The indictment alleged that Smith, among other things, used a firearm to carjack and kidnap two individuals, on of them a West Mecklenburg High School teacher, within the Western District of North Carolina. In all, Smith was charged with seven federal criminal felony counts and was found guilty by a jury in February 2009 on all seven charges.

According to evidence presented at Smith’s February trial, on December 12, 2007, Smith was released from the Federal Bureau of Prisons after serving a sentence for a prior conviction. Thereafter, on December 30, 2007, the defendant used a handgun and other threats to carjack and kidnap his first victim at an Econo Lodge in Rock Hill, SC. Smith forced the victim to drive to Charlotte, and to rent him a hotel room at a Holiday Inn there. Testimony revealed that Smith used the victim’s cell phone to obtain contact information for the victim’s family, and then threatened to harm the victim’s family if the victim attempted to escape or to alert the police. Smith then forced the victim to withdraw over $3,000 from bank accounts and to rent Smith a car. The evidence showed that the defendant then released the victim late on the evening of December 30, 2007.

Trial testimony further established that on January 2, 2008, Smith again used a gun and other threats to carjack and kidnap his second victim, a West Mecklenburg High School teacher on her lunch break, from the parking lot of a Subway Restaurant on Little Rock Road in Charlotte. According to trial testimony, Smith, at gunpoint, forced his second victim to drive him to a Ramada Inn in Charlotte and to rent him a room. Over the next thirty hours, the defendant forced the victim to withdraw cash from her bank account, and trial evidence showed that the money was used to purchase, among other things, crack cocaine. In addition to threatening the victim with the gun, Smith also threatened to use her as a human shield in any altercation with the police, all according to trial testimony.

Trial evidence also showed that on January 3, 2008, in order to escape captivity, the second victim convinced the defendant to take her to the State Employees Credit Union (SECU) on East 3rd Street in Charlotte so that she could purportedly obtain additional cash money for him. Once inside the SECU, the victim called police and the defendant was arrested by CMPD in the SECU parking lot. At the time of his arrest, the defendant was in possession of the handgun used to facilitate the carjacking and kidnaping crimes.

Edward R. Ryan, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of NC, commended and thanked the detectives of CMPD’s Homicide Division for conducting an exceedingly thorough investigation, stating, “Without the diligent efforts of these CMPD Detectives, we would not have been able to bring this federal prosecution.” The case was handled for the government by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Thomas T. Cullen and Mark T. Odulio of the Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Charlotte.

According to evidence presented at trial and at today’s sentencing hearing, Peter James Smith’s criminal history includes 17 prior convictions beginning in 1973. He was imprisoned until December 2007 for convictions on federal gun and assault charges. The sentencing hearing today for Peter James Smith was presided over by Chief U.S. District Judge Robert J. Conrad, Jr. After hearing from the government, the defendant’s attorney, and the defendant’s victims, Judge Conrad commented, “This defendant appears to be incapable of living in a law-abiding society.”

In addition to the prison sentence, Smith was ordered to pay total restitution in the amount of approximately $10,000. Federal sentences are served without the possibility of parole.