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Warren and his accomplice, John Howard, participated in an armed carjacking outside the Hampton Inn on 135th Avenue.
By Forum Staff
A Queens man has been sentenced to 18 years’ imprisonment, to be followed by three years of supervised release, for shooting a woman during the course of a carjacking in South Ozone Park last year, and participating in another carjacking as well, the U.S. Department of Justice announced on Thursday.
Donald Warren and his co-defendant, John Howard, previously pleaded guilty to carjacking and related firearms charges. According to court records, Warren and Howard participated in a string of violent carjackings between December 2015 and January 2016 in which the victims were threatened, robbed, and forced from their vehicles at gunpoint. As part of his plea agreement, Warren admitted to participating in an armed carjacking outside the Hampton Inn on 135th Avenue that resulted in the shooting of a 53-year-old woman. The woman’s daughter was waiting in the passenger seat of a car parked in front of the hotel when Warren, armed with a loaded gun, entered the vehicle. Warren threatened the daughter and drove the car, with the daughter trapped inside it, around the hotel parking lot. When her mother left the hotel a few minutes later, Warren exited the vehicle and demanded the mother’s purse. After the mother refused and struck Warren in the face, he shot her in the chest. Howard and Warren then fled the scene. The shooting victim survived, but her injuries required hospitalization and surgery, federal authorities noted.
Warren also admitted that he participated in a carjacking in December 2015 with Howard during which they stole a Mercedes-Benz in front of the Best Western hotel in Jamaica. Warren had threatened the driver with a gun, stole his wallet, and forced him out of his car.
“Donald Warren and John Howard would prowl neighborhoods in Nassau and Queens looking for unsuspecting victims to carjack or rob at gunpoint,” said Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Special Agent-in-Charge Ashan Benedict, of the New York Field Division. “Their pattern of violent crime escalated in a short period to the shooting of an innocent 53-year-old woman seeking to protect herself while Warren brandished a handgun and threatened her. After shooting the victim, Warren and Howard used a car previously stolen at gunpoint as a getaway vehicle. Warren deserves every day of the sentence received, and we hope his lengthy imprisonment provides some solace to the victims of his crimes.”
Howard is scheduled to be sentenced next month.
