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Antwan Malone, 34, told a federal judge in Newark that he'd pulled up alongside the BMW M5 that was stopped at a light at the westbound Route 78 entrance ramp on Irvine Turner Boulevard on Feb. 22, 2021 and blocked it from entering the highway, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger said.
He said he then pointed a gun in the driver's face and threatened to shoot while ordering the person out, Sellinger said.
"The driver was able to escape by ramming the BMW into Malone’s vehicle and entering the I-78 entrance ramp," the U.S. attorney said. "Malone fired two shots at the BMW."
Malone took a deal from the government rather than risk a trial, pleading guilty via videoconference on Wednesday to attempted carjacking, carrying and using a firearm during a crime and possession heroin and cocaine base with the intent to distribute both, he said.
U.S. District Judge Julien X. Neals scheduled sentencing for May 23. Malone will have to serve out nearly the entire term he receives because there's no parole in the federal prison system.
Sellinger credited the New Jersey State Police, the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, special agents of the DEA and FBI with the investigation leading to the plea, secured by Assistant U.S. Attorneys George L. Brandley of the Health Care Fraud Unit and DeNae M. Thomas of his Violent Crimes Unit in Newark.
All of the agencies are part of the Newark Violent Crime Initiative (VCI), which fights violent crime in and around the city, Sellinger said. Also participating in the VCI, he said, are his office, the ATF, U.S. Marshals, the Newark Department of Public Safety, the Essex County Sheriff’s Office, the Union County Jail, the New Jersey Department of Corrections, and police from East Orange and Irvington.
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