NEWARK, N.J. – A Waldwick, New Jersey, man was sentenced
today to 36 months in prison for carjacking a taxi and striking the victim on
the head with a beer bottle, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced.
Arlyn Jowany Carrasco Cruz, 28, previously pleaded guilty
before U.S. District Judge Jose L. Linares to an information charging him with
one count of carjacking. Judge Linares imposed the sentence today in Newark
federal court.
According to documents filed in this case and statements
made in court:
In the early morning hours of Dec. 26, 2016, Cruz and at
least five others forcibly took a 2008 Dodge Caravan from a taxicab driver.
Cruz and the others forced the taxicab driver into the back of the vehicle and
took over driving. As they drove toward Waldwick, Cruz struck the victim in the
head with a beer bottle before being let out of the cab.
After dropping Cruz off, the others continued driving the
cab to New York, and one individual caused further serious bodily injury to the
victim by slicing his throat with a knife before leaving him on the side of the
New York State Thruway near Woodbury, New York. The taxicab driver survived.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Linares sentenced Cruz
to three years of supervised release.
U.S. Attorney Carpenito credited special agents of the FBI,
under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge Bradley W. Cohen in
Newark, investigators from the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, under the
direction of Acting Prosecutor Dennis Calo, and the Ridgewood and Hawthorne
Police Departments with the investigation leading to today’s sentencing.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys
Elaine K. Lou and Karen D. Stringer of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Criminal
Division in Newark.
Defense counsel: Susan C. Cassell Esq., Ridgewood, New
Jersey
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