Millburn Carjacker Who ‘Terrorized’ Teen, Family Pleads Guilty
SHORT HILLS, NJ — An Essex County man who grabbed a 13-year-old girl around the neck and threatened to kill her in front of her family during a carjacking in Millburn last year entered guilty pleas on Tuesday, prosecutors said.
Ahmed Anthony, 30, of Newark, pleaded guilty to first-degree carjacking and second-degree kidnapping before a Superior Court judge in Essex County. Under the plea agreement, prosecutors will recommend that Anthony be sentenced to 14 years in state prison, including nearly 12 years of parole ineligibility, the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General stated.
According to prosecutors:
“Anthony and two unidentified co-conspirators ambushed a family at about 1:48 a.m. on November 27, 2017, as the family returned from vacation to their home in Millburn. After the mother and an older child went into the house, the 13-year-old girl and her father were bringing luggage toward the home from their Range Rover. That is when Anthony grabbed the girl from behind in a choke hold and pulled her back toward the Range Rover. The father heard a man yell, ‘Give me your keys or I will kill your daughter.’ He turned to see Anthony holding his daughter and a second man who approached him with what appeared to be a handgun and demanded his money and keys to the Range Rover in which the family arrived. The father handed the keys to the second man, who drove away in the Range Rover.”
Prosecutors continued:
“At that point, Anthony, while still holding the daughter, demanded that the father get the keys to a second Range Rover parked in the driveway. The father went into the house and retrieved the second set of keys. Once outside, the father turned over the keys and the daughter was released. Anthony took the girl’s suitcase and her blanket.”
And that was when the victimized father decided to go back outside, prosecutors said.
“The father and daughter went into the house, where the father retrieved a handgun and went back outside. He confronted Anthony, who was in the second Range Rover and apparently having trouble starting the vehicle. The father pointed the gun at Anthony and ordered him to get onto the ground. Anthony exited the vehicle but fled into the street on foot and was picked up in a minivan driven by the third co-conspirator.”
Anthony was arrested on Jan. 11 by the New Jersey State Police Fugitive Unit, the Millburn Police Department, the U.S. Marshals Service NY/NJ Regional Task Force Newark Division and the New Jersey State Police Auto Theft Task Force. He was ordered detained pending trial following his arrest; he’s scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 24.
Millburn Police Chief Brian Gilfedder said that the guilty plea will “ensure a long prison term for this violent offender who terrorized a Short Hills family.”
Gilfedder said the investigation was the result of cooperation between the Millburn Police Department, the Division of Criminal Justice, New Jersey State Police and the U.S. Marshals Service.
“This defendant turned an armed carjacking into an even more terrifying experience for the targeted family by grabbing the 13-year-old daughter in a choke hold and threatening her life,” said Attorney General Gurbir Grewal.
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File Photo: Shutterstock (not the vehicle in the above article)
