One of two men charged with a high-profile, violent carjacking caught on video in the Beverly neighborhood has been sentenced to 14½ years in federal prison, officials announced Friday. U.S. District Judge Sunil R. Harjani sentenced Damarri Conner, 23, after Conner pleaded guilty to federal carjacking and firearm charges.
On the evening of November 2, 2023, Conner and his accomplice, Kenneth Merritt, dressed in all black with hoods and face masks, rode a bus to Beverly. There, they hid near a home in the 9300 block of South Pleasant and watched as a 46-year-old woman and her 12-year-old daughter returned from the girl’s volleyball practice and parked in the family’s detached garage, officials said. When the mother stepped out and started toward the back door, the two men sprang from hiding.
Surveillance video showed Merritt throwing the woman to the ground and ripping her purse away, prosecutors said. As she screamed, Conner ran up and punched her in the face while pointing a loaded gun at her from point-blank range as she tried to shield her face.
When her husband rushed outside to help, Conner racked the slide and pointed the gun at him, too, officials said. The husband tried to calm the situation, showing the carjackers how to start the family’s Audi.
Prosecutors said both hijackers yelled threats, including “you got three seconds, shoot her” and “shoot her if she moves,” before driving off. (Video)
Conner had also stolen the keys to the family’s Range Rover during the attack. Six days later, Chicago police tried to stop him while he was driving the stolen Audi, and Conner led them on a high-speed chase with a passenger in the car, prosecutors said.
Police recovered the Audi, but Conner returned to the victims’ home on November 14 and used the stolen keys to take the Range Rover from in front of the house. Law enforcement tracked the vehicle to his neighborhood and found him hiding in a closet. A gun was recovered in the vehicle he had been driving, according to prosecutors.
The case against Conner grew even darker after his arrest, according to a federal sentencing memorandum.
While at the Cook County Jail, Conner “effectively ordered a hit on his own stepfather,” who had identified him in surveillance images during the police investigation, the memo said.
In a recorded jailhouse conversation, someone told Conner that he saw the stepfather and “was going to hop out and blaze him” before asking Conner’s permission “to shoot or hurt” the stepfather.
“No, go ahead,” Conner allegedly replied. “I give you all rights. Go ahead, go ahead. All rights, all rights.”
Conner’s stepfather has since died of natural causes
Prosecutors had pushed for a sentence of 186 months, arguing Conner was the more violent of the two attackers and noting he was on bail for a felony gun charge at the time of the carjacking.
Court filings detailed the lasting toll on the victims. The husband said he believed he was going to die that night and described his wife as a “different person now” who suffers from nightmares. Their daughter, who was 12 when she watched the attack unfold in her own backyard, was later triggered by costumed actors at a Halloween festival and froze up and left her friends.
Merritt, 29, also pleaded guilty to carjacking and firearm offenses. His sentencing is scheduled for June 9. State prosecutors previously said Merritt had been on parole since July 2021 after serving half of three concurrent 10-year sentences for two robberies and being a felon in possession of a firearm — offenses that were initially charged as aggravated carjackings before prosecutors accepted a plea to lesser charges. Police identified Merritt from surveillance video showing him using the husband’s American Express card at a BP gas station while still wearing the clothes he had on during the carjacking.
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