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Joshua M. Perez was one of three armed robbers who commited a Oct. 10 carjacking, another on Dec. 5 and the robbery later than second night of a local gas station, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said.
Surveillance cameras captured video of Perez and two other robbers emerging from a sedan, pointing handguns at occupants of another vehicle, Sellinger said.
They then fled with money and cellphones in the victims’ car and the one they showed up in during the October holdup, the U.S. attorney said.
The second car was found abandoned, with a fingerprint of Perez’s and a cellphone belonging to one of the victims inside, Sellinger said.
Two months later, two robbers pointed guns at another victim before fleeing with the driver’s car, money and cellphone, he said.
That car was used an hour later during the armed robbery of a nearby Trenton gas station, investigators learned.
The trio had pulled up, ordered an undisclosed number of victims to the ground and pistol-whipped them, she said. Perez, meanwhile, went into the station and robbed the attendant at gunpoint, Sellinger said.
Once again, security camera footage helped identify Perez, he said.
Perez was taken into custody without incident after pointing a gun at his captors, the U.S. attorney said. A gun and other evidence linking him to the crimes were found in his home, he said.
Perez, who was released from state prison in May 20 after serving 2½ years for a resisting arrest conviction, was already back in custody in an unrelated case when federal prosecutors brought a case against him.
Perez took a deal from the government rather than risk the potential outcome of a trial, pleading guilty to robbery, carjacking and various weapons offenses.
It was a stiff deal nonetheless: 192 months.
Because there's no parole in the federal prison system, Perez must serve 13½ years before he'll be eligible for release.
U.S. District Judge Georgette Castner also sentenced him in Newark on Thursday, May 30, to three years of supervised release and ordered that he pay restitution to the victims.
Sellinger credited special agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Newark Field Division’s Trenton Satellite Office, Trenton police and detectives with the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office with the investigation leading to the plea and sentenced, secured by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Alexander E. Ramey and Ashley Super Pitts of his Criminal Division in Trenton.
The investigation is part of the Violent Crime Initiative (VCI) in Mercer County, through which the U.S. Attorney’s Office and both the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office and Trenton police have partnered with state, federal, county, and local law enforcement to investigate violent crime in and around the capitol city.
Participants include Sellinger's office, the FBI, the ATF, the DEA New Jersey Division, U.S. Marshals, and the N.J. State Police Regional Operations and Intelligence Center/Real Time Crime Center.
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