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Zyier Brown has been sentenced to 30 years in prison with all but 13 years suspended after he and 17-year-old Upper Marlboro resident Victor Noel carjacked both an Uber and later a Toyota driver at gunpoint, the Montgomery County State's Attorney's Office announced on Wednesday.
The prison term stems from a pair of separate carjacking incidents:
- On Oct. 25, 2022 when they attacked an Uber driver in the 1500 block of Shady Grove Road in Rockville, and;
- On Nov. 14, 2022, when there was a report of an armed carjacking in the 7800 block of Guildberry Court in Gaithersburg.
According to court documents, in the first case, an Uber was ordered in Montgomery County, and when they got inside, they immediately pulled out guns and ordered the driver out of the Nissan Altima, chasing him down and threatening to kill him if he didn't hand over the keys.
The Nissan was found the following day in the back of a trailer park on Baumann Drive in Capitol Heights.
They struck again weeks later, when they forcibly removed a man from his Toyota after he arrived home.
Following the second carjacking, the pair took police on a high-speed pursuit that ended with a violent crash off of I-270 that saw them rolling the stolen Toyota Camry over several times after losing control on Democracy Boulevard.
Brown was driving.
Both Brown and Noel pleaded guilty earlier this year to two counts of armed carjacking and use of a handgun in commission of a crime of violence.
Earlier this year, Noel was sentenced to 30 years with all but 11 years suspended.
In addition to their prison terms, both Brown and Noel were ordered to serve five years of supervised probation when they are released.
A third suspect, Jayla Newman, 19, was also present for only the second carjacking, but did not touch or threaten the victim while standing behind the vehicle during the altercation.
Newman was sentenced on Tuesday to 331 days of time served and is now on three years of probation.
"This comes at a time when we have growing concern about the rising number of auto thefts and carjackings committed by young adults and juveniles in our community," State's Attorney John McCarthy said.
"We thank Judge Smith for fashioning appropriate sentences in this matter, to help discourage this type of activity."
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