Two New York City men have been convicted of hijacking a tractor-trailer in Mount Jackson, Virginia, earlier this year.
Stephen Pierre-Paul, 30, and Wayne Ricardo Taylor, 26, have been convicted on charges of carjacking, armed robbery and possession of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Virginia.
Their sentencing hearing is slated for March 11, 2022, where they face a mandatory minimum sentence of seven years and a maximum sentence of life in prison.
On April 1, shortly after 3 a.m., the attorney’s office said that Pierre-Paul, Taylor and co-conspirators traveled to a truck stop in Mount Jackson in a van with blacked out windows.
They then hijacked the 18-wheel commercial tractor-trailer with Alabama tags by abducting the driver at gunpoint and forcing him into their van, according to the attorney’s office.
The defendants were arrested when both the van and hijacked truck were stopped at a roadblock around 5:15 a.m. on eastbound Interstate 66 in Fairfax County. The victim was rescued at that time.
Officials said that co-defendants Cornelius Crossman, 37, and Odane Butler, 27, both of Brooklyn, New York, will be sentenced for their involvement in the hijacking on Dec. 10 and Jan. 21, 2022, respectively.