FLORIDA – An Orlando man has pleaded guilty to an armed carjacking in Tampa.
United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg announced last week that Rodney Devon Jones, 28, of Orlando, has pleaded guilty to carjacking and brandishing a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.
Jones faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in federal prison for the carjacking offense and a minimum mandatory term of seven years, up to life imprisonment on the firearm offense. A sentencing date has not yet been set.
According to the plea agreement, on September 28, 2021, Jones and two others committed a carjacking in the parking garage at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Tampa. Jones and the two other men jumped out of a stolen Toyota, pointed guns at the victim, and stole his wallet and jewelry.
According to prosecutors, they demanded that the victim identify his car. The victim pointed out an Alfa Romeo. One of the men then used the victim’s car keys to drive off in the Alfa Romeo, and the others followed in the Toyota.
Two days later, officers from the Orlando Police Department arrested Jones after they said he was found in the stolen Toyota.
The officers said they recovered a firearm with Jones’s DNA near the Toyota.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Seminole Police Department, with assistance from the Orlando Police Department and the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, as part of the Middle District of Florida’s Safe Trails Task Force. The Safe Trails Task Force is a partnership between the United States Attorney’s Office, the FBI, the Seminole Police Department, and other federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement that work to combat the growth of crime in Indian Country. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Christopher F. Murray.
