NEWARK, N.J. – A judge sentenced a Bergen County, to 65 months in prison on Wednesday for his participation in a 2015 robbery of a North Jersey bar and the violent carjacking and kidnapping that took place shortly afterward, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced.
According to a statement released by U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito Wilbur, Jonathon Barahona, 22, of Ridgewood, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Jose L. Linares to a three-count information charging him with conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act Robbery, carjacking, and kidnapping. Judge Linares imposed the sentence today in Newark federal court.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
Barahona admitted that on Dec. 25, 2016, he and others forcibly robbed a bar in Hawthorne, New Jersey, and subsequently fled with approximately $200 in cash.
U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito says in the early morning hours of Dec. 26, 2015, Barahona and others hailed a taxi in Paterson and forcibly took the taxi from the driver.
Barahona admitted that he and others forced the driver into the back of the vehicle and took over driving.
U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said Barahona also admitted that during the carjacking, other conspirators caused severe bodily injury to the driver by hitting him in the head with a beer bottle and slicing his throat with a knife before eventually leaving him on the side of the road in New York. The taxicab driver survived.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Linares sentenced Barahona to five years of supervised release and fined $1,500.