The second man charged in a high-profile, violent carjacking captured on video in Beverly has been sentenced to 14½ years in federal prison, officials announced Wednesday. U.S. District Judge Sunil R. Harjani sentenced Kenneth Merritt, 29, after he pleaded guilty to federal carjacking and firearm charges.
On the evening of November 2, 2023, Merritt and his accomplice, Damarri Conner, dressed in all black, with hoods and face masks, and rode a bus to Beverly. They hid near a home in the 9300 block of South Pleasant Street and watched as a 46-year-old woman and her 12-year-old daughter returned from the girl’s volleyball practice and parked the family’s car in a detached garage, officials said.
When the mother got 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 away her purse, 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 herself.
When the woman’s husband rushed outside to help, Conner racked the gun’s slide and pointed it at him, too, officials said. The husband tried to de-escalate the situation by showing the carjackers how to start the family’s Audi.
Prosecutors said both men yelled threats, including “you got three seconds, shoot her” and “shoot her if she moves,” before driving away.
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. Those cases were initially charged as aggravated carjackings before prosecutors accepted pleas 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.
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. Conner fled, leading officers 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 Conner’s neighborhood and found him hiding in a closet. A gun was recovered from the vehicle he had been driving, prosecutors said.
The case against Conner took another turn 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 memorandum said. In a recorded jailhouse conversation, someone told Conner he had seen the stepfather and “was going to hop out and blaze him” before asking Conner for permission “to shoot or hurt” him.
“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.
Court filings detailed the lasting impact of the carjacking on the family. 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. She froze and left the event with her friends, according to the court filings.
Conner received an identical 14½-year sentence earlier this year after pleading guilty to the same federal charges.
