July 18, 2002
A Vienna teen-ager has been sentenced to six months in jail in connection with a carjacking, last December, in Chantilly. He is Kevin Wood, 19, of 10002 Garrett St.
The incident occurred Dec. 14, around 8:15 p.m., in front of the A-1 Dollar Store at 13914 Metrotech Drive in Chantilly. A 26-year-old Chantilly woman had left her 1997 Range Rover there in the fire lane.
She also left the keys in the ignition, with the motor running, and her mother, 52, waiting inside the vehicle while she dashed inside the store. But before she returned, a 17-year-old Centreville boy got into the driver's side, brandished a handgun at the mother and motioned for her to get out.
Returning to the vehicle, the daughter saw the boy inside and, as she opened the driver's-side door, the boy told her to make her mother leave. She complied, and the 17-year-old drove off. Fairfax County police broadcast a lookout for the vehicle, and found it — and three occupants — at the commuter lot at the corner of Fox Mill Road and Lawyers Road in Herndon.
Police then arrested all three. They charged the 17-year-old with carjacking, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony and brandishing a weapon. A second Centreville boy, also 17, was charged with carjacking.
Police charged Wood with carjacking and, on July 2, he appeared in General District Court. At that time, he was found guilty of a reduced charge of accessory after the fact — which is a misdemeanor, instead of a felony. Judge Ian O'Flaherty then sentenced Wood to 12 months in jail, suspending six months, and placing him on a year's supervised probation.
<tgl> —Bonnie Hobbs