WASHINGTON — Six of the 10 teenagers linked to two carjacking rings in D.C. had their day in court Thursday.
All six filed into the court handcuffed and shackled wearing orange prison jumpsuits. The defendants sat behind their attorneys and pleaded not guilty to a 19-count indictment, including armed carjacking, robbery of a senior citizen and conspiracy. The seventh defendant, Isaiah Flowers, is behind bars in Maryland on separate charges and will appear later.
The courtroom was packed Thursday with anxious family members, sitting on the edge of their seats, trying to steal glances at their children, some holding their heads in their hands as they awaited the fate of their sons. The mother of Irshaad Ellis-Bey, an accused armed carjacker, was in the courtroom holding on to his baby brother who was cooing throughout the proceedings.
The defense attorneys waived the reading in court, but U.S. Attorney Mark Graves already laid out the case against them in a news conference Monday. Graves said the serial carjackers coordinated their crimes through social media and text messages writing "GTA-IRL," which prosecutors said stands for "grand theft auto in real life."
"We need to have a serious response to show people this is not a game," Graves said. "This is the real world and there will be real world consequences."
The seven defendants make up one of two alleged carjacking rings responsible for 15 carjackings between Christmas 2022 and June 2023. Both rings stored the stolen cars at a Florida Avenue garage. They were captured on surveillance camera inside that garage underneath the Hendrix apartments in Northeast.
It was an MPD undercover officer who cracked the case back in August, buying a stolen car out of the garage. WUSA9 has learned the young men who live in the Hendrix apartments have not been indicted, but helped store and sell the cars. Prosecutors said many of the teens live in Maryland and met at Flowers High School in Prince George's County.
Now, they are all charged as adults with a mandatory minimum of 15 years for each charge, unless the judge imposes a D.C. law currently under review - giving anyone under 25 less time in the name of rehabilitation.
The judge ordered all the defendants held without bail and as one young man was being escorted out of the courtroom, he spotted his mother and said, “I love you.”
The mother responded, “I love you too. Stay strong in there.”
All the teens are due back in court Jan. 26, 2024.