Source: United States Department of Justice News
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Jermaine Lee Moss, 21, of Charlotte, was sentenced today to seven years in prison to be followed by five years of supervised release for possession and brandishing of a firearm during a carjacking, announced Dena J. King, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.
U.S. Attorney King is joined in making today’s announcement by Bennie Mims, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Charlotte Field Division, and Chief Johnny Jennings of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD).
According to filed documents and information presented in court, on September 18, 2020, at approximately 8:00 a.m., Moss carjacked a victim at gunpoint. The victim initially contacted CMPD to report that two males were stealing packages from his neighbor’s porch. While CMPD officers were enroute to investigate the incident, they were advised by dispatchers that the service call had been changed to an armed robbery. According to court documents and the victim’s statement, Moss saw the victim and walked up to his vehicle. Moss then pointed a gun at the victim and told him to get out the car. Moss also ordered the victim to reset his phone. When the victim told Moss he did not know how to do that, Moss threatened to kill him if he did not comply. Moss then drove off in the victim’s vehicle with the victim’s phone.
Court documents show that law enforcement located the stolen vehicle parked at a convenience store while Moss was standing nearby. A CMPD officer approached Moss who did not comply with the officer’s commands. During the arrest, law enforcement recovered a .40 caliber semi-automatic pistol from Moss’s pants pocket. At the time of the carjacking, Moss was on probation with the state of North Carolina for a Common Law Robbery conviction.
Moss is currently in federal custody and will be transferred to the custody of the federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility. All federal sentences are served without the possibility of parole.
The ATF and CMPD handled the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney David Kelly of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte prosecuted the case.