Jamie Manning faced mandatory decades in prison for armed carjackings over a nine-day period.
NEWARK -- A Newark man's 10-day carjacking binge will cost him most of the rest of his life in prison, following his sentencing Tuesday in federal court.
Saying that carjacking is a crime that creates fear in society as well as its victims, U.S. District Judge William Walls ordered that Jamie Manning spend 47 years in federal prison.
"The impact on society is, you're afraid to move," Walls said.
Considering the 31-year-old Newark man's history of involvement in the courts and justice system, Walls said, the thought of rehabilitation was "relatively unimportant... The main thrust of my evaluation is punishment."
Manning was found guilty last year of involvement in three armed carjackings and one attempted carjacking in Newark between Dec. 20-29, 2012. He was convicted of charges relating to conspiracy, carjacking and attempted carjacking, and multiple counts of use of a firearm during a crime of violence.
In a deal with prosecutors, Manning agreed to waive his right to appeal the sentence in return for the dropping of sentencing on two gun-related counts that would have mandated 50 years in prison.
Carjacker gets 20 years in prison
Walls rejected a defense request that Manning not be considered a career criminal, citing numerous offenses largely related to selling and possessing drugs, for which he was charged since he turned 18.
But those crimes paled compared to the terror he and associates imposed on Newark in late 2012 when he threatened and attempted to seize vehicles -- one carrying a young child, another owned by a pair of social workers who work with convicts, Assistant U.S. Attorney Dara Aquila Govan said.
"Many of them are still frightened," she said.
Some of them have moved out of Newark, Govan said. One entire family had to go into counseling because of the trauma of their carjacking, she said.
Manning, she said, "is a person who has no regard for other people."
Defense attorney Frank Arleo said he hoped to lessen Manning's sentence by a few years, but acknowledged that some of the charges Manning faced carried mandatory prison terms.
Manning declined to address the court.
A co-conspirator, Corey Thermitus, 24, of Newark, pleaded guilty to related charges and was sentenced in December to more than 21 years in prison, according to the office of U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman.
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