Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 26, 1993 TAG: 9302260022
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ORLANDO, FLA. LENGTH: Medium
TRIO GUILTY IN 1ST CARJACKING TRIAL
A jury convicted three youths of armed carjacking Thursday in the execution-style slayings of two men. It was the nation's first conviction in a fatal attack under a new federal carjacking law.The Nov. 29 shootings, in which a third man was wounded, took place during the second of two vehicle thefts.
The jury deliberated about six hours before agreeing with prosecutors that all the elements of the crime fit the definition of armed carjacking involving violence under the law approved in October.
The convictions carry mandatory life sentences in federal prison.
The defendants will be tried in state court for first-degree murder and attempted murder, and could face the electric chair.
Jermaine Foster, 19; Gerard Booker, 22; and Alf Catholic, 21, were convicted on all five federal counts of conspiracy, armed carjacking involving death and using a firearm during a felony.
The three admitted the vehicle thefts, robbery and killings; but their lawyers argued that the case belonged in state court, not before a federal jury.
"It wasn't a carjacking until the federal government decided it should be," said Mark O'Mara, representing Booker. "This new law needed a model. It needed to be tried, and we were picked."
Defense attorneys contended the car theft was an afterthought to robbery and thus not subject to the law passed after a nationwide carjacking spree last year.
William Sheaffer, the lawyer for Foster, the admitted triggerman, said the defense had asked too much of the jurors in differentiating carjacking from robbery and car theft.
"We will appeal the verdicts and let the appellate court interpret the law for us all," Sheaffer said.
The star witness was a fourth defendant, 17-year-old Leondre Henderson, who pleaded guilty so that he wouldn't have to face the death penalty on murder charges in state court.
Slain were Anthony Clifton, 20, and Anthony Faiella, 17. Michael Rentas, 20, was wounded.
Keywords:
FATALITY