On October 25, a man allegedly hid in the back seat of an SUV in the parking lot of the American Legion Hall in Pompano Beach. After the driver was on the road, the attacker grabbed the driver by the neck and threatened to hurt him if he stopped driving. The driver, in an attempt to find help, accelerated into the parking lot of a nearby gas station and accidentally hit another car.
The crash loosened the carjacker’s grip, and the victim fled. The carjacker tried to drive away, but the damaged vehicle would not move. When a woman refueling her car nearby started recording him with her phone camera, the carjacker pulled a yellow beach bag over his head in an attempt to avoid identification and ran.
Nevertheless, police set up a perimeter, tracked him with the aid of a K-9, and arrested him. Undoubtedly he is seeking a carjacking criminal defense lawyer, now that he is facing charges of carjacking, false imprisonment, burglary, and aggravated assault on a person over 65.
Carjacking is the crime of taking a motor vehicle from someone, with intent to permanently or temporarily deprive the victim of its use or to appropriate it for use by the carjacker or another person, by force, violence, assault, or fear. The victim may or may not be the actual owner of the vehicle, as long as it is in the victim’s custody when taken. A carjacking criminal defense lawyer can help determine whether a particular incident legally constitutes carjacking.
For the crime to be carjacking, either the victim must resist, the offender must place the victim in fear of death or serious bodily harm, or the offender must administer some substance that renders the victim unconscious. Use of a deadly weapon during the carjacking, or in flight after attempting or committing carjacking, will lead to more severe punishment. A Broward County criminal defense defense attorney can help you argue in court that the State Attorney has not proved the carjacking, or the use of a deadly weapon, beyond a reasonable doubt.
Finding an experienced Pompano Beach criminal defense lawyer is vital if you are charged with a crime, especially one as serious as carjacking. If you need a Broward County carjacking defense attorney, or you know someone who does, call Hassett & Associates, P.A. at 954-791-3939.
