A man has been sentenced to 70 months in federal prison for trying to carjack an off-duty Cook County Sheriff’s Police officer at a south suburban gas station, terrorizing the officer’s children, officials announced Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge Sara L. Ellis sentenced Javon Stingley, 28, after he pleaded guilty to attempted carjacking in connection with the February 19, 2023, carjacking attempt in Dolton. Prosecutors had asked for an 84-month sentence.
According to court documents, Stingley and at least two accomplices were armed with handguns and wearing face masks as they drove around in a stolen Lincoln Aviator. That’s when they spotted the officer’s silver Dodge Challenger at a gas station and decided to take it.
The officer was pumping gas while his wife and two young sons waited inside the vehicle. Prosecutors said Stingley and his accomplices jumped out of the Aviator, rushed toward the officer and pointed guns at him while shouting threats. When the officer instinctively reached toward his own gun, one of the carjackers pressed a gun against his head and threatened to shoot him.
The officer moved his hand away from his weapon and one of the carjackers took it. Stingley and one accomplice then started climbing into the officer’s car, guns still drawn, as his children and wife sat inside. The officer begged the men to let his family go before they took the vehicle. The family fled.
After a brief pause, prosecutors said, the group abandoned the car and sped away in the Aviator, taking the officer’s gun and cell phone with them.
“It is a miracle that no one was hurt or killed,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum, noting that a gunfight at a crowded gas station on a busy Sunday afternoon could have been catastrophic.
Prosecutors acknowledged Stingley was less culpable than the two men accused of helping him carry out the carjacking attempt. They both have more extensive criminal histories and were involved in more carjackings, prosecutors said. Both are awaiting sentencing.
But Stingley’s record is far from a clean slate. At 18, he was caught carrying a gun while an active warrant was out for his arrest, according to prosecutors. Two years after pleading guilty in that case, he was convicted of possessing crack cocaine, a digital scale and marijuana in a vehicle.
