A 17-year-old teen from Florence, NJ has been charged with robbery and carjacking after allegedly pulling a knife on two separate victims.
The alleged incidents took place shortly after 3 a.m. on May 21st near Connecticut Ave. in Hamilton. The first victim, who was on foot, claims the teen threatened him with a knife and forced him to turn over his belongings. Minutes after, a second victim claims the alleged assailant held a knife to her throat and forced her out of her car before driving away with it. Both victims gave matching descriptions of the teen’s clothing from that night. An investigation led the police to arrest the teen, who has also been charged with a separate carjacking offense that occurred five days earlier. He is currently being held at the Burlington Juvenile Detention Center.
Since the defendant is a minor, he would normally be tried in juvenile court, where the primary concern is rehabilitation as opposed to punishment and deterrence. As a result, he would be sentenced to less severe penalties than an adult convicted of the same offenses. . However, since the defendant is 17, the prosecutors may attempt to try him as an adult.
The alleged robberies in these cases are considered first degree rather than second degree crimes, since the actor was armed with a deadly weapon. If tried as an adult, a conviction for first degree robbery carries a prison sentence of 10 to 20 years, while the carjacking charges carry a 10 to 30-year sentence. Both of these crimes are included under the “No Early Release Act,” which states that 85% of the sentence would have to be served before being eligible for parole.
For more information on this case, please access the nj.com article entitled “Florence teen is charged in two Hamilton carjacking, robbery incidents.”
