Opinion ID: 2973137
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Carjacking and Robbery

Text: Early in the morning of October 21, 2003, George, along with his cohorts Maurice “Bert” Sternberg and Dewayne Bethel, participated in a scheme to rob Joshua McFarland.1 Sternberg masterminded the plan. He knew that McFarland sold marijuana, because the two had engaged in prior drug deals together. He reasoned that robbing a drug dealer was a good idea because the dealer would not want to get the police involved. To implement his plan, Sternberg set up a meeting with McFarland for the ostensible purpose of buying marijuana. While Sternberg distracted McFarland, the other two were to surprise and rob him. Midway through the robbery, Sternberg’s plan began to unravel. McFarland told Bethel and George that he did not have any money on him. Bethel and George forced their way into McFarland’s car, with Bethel in the back, McFarland now in the passenger’s seat and George in the driver’s seat. McFarland refused to tell them where he lived, so George drove to where he and Bethel thought McFarland lived. They repeatedly beat McFarland during the drive. Sternberg followed from a distance in his own car. Unknown to George or Bethel, the house to which they went was McFarland’s prior residence. When they arrived, the two robbers discovered that McFarland had been carrying several 1 The racial identity of the assailants was an issue at trial. Both Sternberg and George are Caucasian. Bethel is African-American. -2- No. 04-5072 United States v. George hundred dollars. Upset that he had lied to them, George and Bethel forced McFarland out of the car and on the ground, pistol whipping and yelling at him the entire time. Alerted by the commotion, two of the current residents of the house – Tahra and Alan Beam – came out. George and Bethel demanded they give McFarland’s money to them. Tahra Beam tried to explain that she had no idea who McFarland was, and did not have any of his money. After several minutes of escalating confusion, culminating in George forcing both Beams to lie face down on their porch, Tahra Beam went back into the house to get the Beams’ housemate, a tech sergeant in the military who had a gun. George and Bethel fled before the housemate came out. Sternberg did not go to the residence, but rather drove around the neighborhood. He met up with Bethel (but not George) shortly after the incident. The two ditched Sternberg’s car and split up the stolen cash and jewelry.