Elizabeth Man Sentenced to 188 Months in Federal Prison
for Jersey City Carjacking of FBI Employee’s Jeep

NEWARK – An Elizabeth man with a lengthy criminal record was sentenced today to 188 months in federal prison for a carjacking in Jersey City last year, in which he forced his way into an SUV driven by an employee of the FBI and then ran over her, U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie announced.

Jimmy K. White, 31, pleaded guilty Feb. 24 before U.S. District Judge Joseph E. Irenas, who sentenced him today and described White’s conduct as a “serious, heinous offense.”

Judge Irenas characterized White’s criminal background as “a history of violence which is close to staggering.” Among his convictions described by the court was a 1995 sexual assault from Hudson County and a 1997 violent robbery, as well as numerous disorderly persons offenses including assaults.

His criminal history qualified him under federal law as a career offender eligible for the lengthy prison term he received. There is no parole in the federal system.

At his guilty plea, White admitted that, after he had engaged in a scuffle with a man in the parking lot of a bagel store during the morning hours of May 15, 2005, he forcibly stole the Jeep of a woman who tried to intervene in the scuffle.

White admitted that he entered the woman’s driver’s side door and then bit her on the face and hand when she tried to stop him from driving away with her Jeep. The victim – who is an FBI employee in the Newark Division, but not a Special Agent – subsequently fell from the running board of the SUV. White then drove over the victim, seriously injuring her, as he fled the scene.

“White deserves every day of that prison sentence,” said Christie. “He is a dangerous individual who embodies the term career criminal.”

According to the government attorney handling the case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Walsh, the FBI was able to obtain DNA evidence from the victim’s face and hand. That evidence was brought by helicopter to the FBI laboratory in Quantico, Va., where it was analyzed and compared against a universe of known DNA samples. Several days later, White’s DNA was matched to the DNA obtained from the victim’s face and hand. Subsequent investigation confirmed that White was indeed the assailant, and he was arrested in Jersey City on May 19, four days after the attack. White had been in custody since the arrest.

Christie credited the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Leslie G. Wiser, Jr., with developing the case against the defendant. Christie also recognized the investigative efforts of detectives from the Jersey City Police Department, under the direction of Chief Robert Troy, whose officers responded to the scene of the crime and gathered vital evidence in the moments following the crime. The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Walsh of the Commercial Crimes Unit in Newark.