A 20-year-old man with an extensive and violent criminal history has received a 10-year prison term for terrorizing three unsuspecting victims under cover of darkness in the Twin Cities and carjacking their vehicles at gunpoint.
Javon T. Wilson-Branch, of Minneapolis, was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court in St. Paul after pleading guilty in August to aiding and abetting carjacking in connection with the string of crimes in Minneapolis and St. Paul in March.
“This individual put several lives at risk by going on an armed carjacking spree and evading law enforcement by driving 120 miles per hour through a residential neighborhood,” U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger said in a statement announcing the sentence. “This case offers a snapshot of a disturbing trend of violent and reckless behavior.”
The FBI’s special agent in charge in Minneapolis added, “Wilson-Branch’s cowardly and reprehensible actions, aimed at terrorizing innocent victims for personal gain, have no place in a just society.”
Along with prison, Wilson-Branch’s sentence includes three years of supervised release and an order to pay $1,100 in restitution to his victims.
Prosecutors said two other people accompanied him at various times during the carjackings. One of them, 20-year-old Marshall D. Carlvin Jr., of Minneapolis, was charged, convicted of two firearms-related felonies and sentenced on Jan. 8 to two months in jail.
The first of the carjacking victims, Annelise Christ, said Friday that she was in the alley behind her south Minneapolis home with her 12-year-old daughter after grocery shopping, and “it seemed like he just came out of the shadows, so to speak. ... [The encounter] felt like 15 minutes passed, but it was probably more like 2 minutes.”
Despite the frightening episode and her SUV being totaled in the process, the Windom neighborhood resident said “we’re hanging in there. Our neighbors were so helpful afterward and rallied around us. That really helped us feel safe.”
