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Defense lawyer Vincent Basile, Hakeem Chance (STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter)
Hakeem Chance, 22, was driving his mother’s BMW during the July 2012 pursuit through Nutley and parts of Bloomfield and Little Falls before the car slammed into a brick wall in front of a hilltop house in Montclair.
The last couple of miles were “driven on steel” after the car hit a curb as Chance made a steep left, shredding the front tire on his side, authorities said.
The 5-foot-5-inch, 135-pound Chance was arrested soon after the crash when he and his alleged mentor, Dammen McDuffie of Englewood, tried to run. McDuffie got away but was tracked down soon after. He got 15½ years, two years less than Chance, when they were sentenced in July.
Jurors in April convicted them on just about every count in connection with the two burglaries and chase involving officers and detectives from the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office and Englewood, Fort Lee, Hackensack and Teaneck police departments.
These included reckless driving, creating a risk of death or injury, eluding capture and attempting to injure no fewer than eight officers.
Chance, 24, had two felony convictions — both before he turned 20 — and first got into trouble when he was 12, Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor David Calviello said.
“There is no effort on his part to reform, to redeem himself, or become a law-abiding citizen,” Calviello told Presiding Superior Court Judge Liliana DeAvila-Silebi on Friday. “He repeatedly violates probation, and then goes out and commits more burglaries with Mr. Khali Carter. These are the people he associates with.”
He also failed several drug tests for both cocaine and marijuana during probation, and owes fines that he hasn’t paid, the prosecutor said.
DeAvila-Silebi sentenced Chance to 12 years in all. Eight of those years are to run at the same time as his current sentence.
He’ll be eligible for parole after two of the remaining four years are served, moving his earliest eligibility date to July 13, 2022, less than eight years from now, when Chance will be 30.
STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter
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