Newark Man Admits Five Armed Carjackings

NEWARK, N.J. – An Essex County, New Jersey, man today admitted committing five armed carjackings between June 6, 2012 and June 22, 2012.

Jahleel McLendon, 21, of Newark, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Kevin McNulty in Newark federal court to an information charging him with five counts of theft of a motor vehicle by force, violence, and intimidation, and one count of brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

On June 6, 2012, McLendon approached a man sitting in the driver’s seat of a parked Chrysler 300 and ordered him out of the car at gunpoint. Three days later McLendon and an accomplice carjacked an Acura TL while the victim was loading the trunk of the car. On June 15, 2012, McLendon and an accomplice carjacked a Chevrolet Trailblazer at gunpoint, and approximately 20 minutes later, used that Trailblazer to carjack a BMW 325 at a gas station in Newark. On June 22, 2012, McLendon carjacked a Chevrolet Impala at gunpoint. Less than two hours later, McLendon was arrested by Newark police officers and found to be in possession of a handgun.

The carjacking counts to which McLendon pleaded guilty each carry a maximum potential penalty of 15 years in prison. The firearms charge to which McLendon pleaded guilty is punishable by a minimum consecutive term of seven years in prison and a maximum consecutive term of life in prison. Each of these charges also carries a maximum $250,000 fine. Sentencing is scheduled for March 23, 2015.

U.S. Attorney Fishman credited the Newark Police Department, under the direction of Police Director Eugene Venable and Police Chief Anthony Campos; special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Aaron T. Ford; detectives with the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, under the Direction of Acting Prosecutor Carolyn A. Murray, and investigators with the U.S. Attorney’s Office with the investigation leading to today’s guilty plea.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Cari Fais and Meredith Williams of the Criminal Division in Newark.

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Defense counsel: Carol Gillen, Esq., Assistant Federal Public Defender, Newark

McLendon, Jahleel Information