PERRYVILLE — A teen accused of assaulting and carjacking a 74-year-old woman in Perryville is facing up to 30 years in prison after accepting a plea deal, according to Cecil County Circuit Court records.
The defendant — Jacynda Destiny Sims, 18, of Elkton — pleaded guilty to carjacking during a courtroom hearing on Sept. 23, as part of a plea agreement reached by Assistant State’s Attorney Robert Sentman and Sims’ lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Sarah Bordner, court records show.
Prosecutors agreed to dismiss the remaining 14 related charges against Sims, including robbery, second-degree assault, reckless endangerment, unlawful taking of a motor vehicle and theft of more than $1,500 and less than $25,000, according to court records.
Cecil County Circuit Court Judge Cameron A. Brown accepted Sims’ guilty plea and set her sentencing for Dec. 13.
Perryville Police Department investigators also charged Sims’ alleged accomplice, whom they described as a 16-year-old female. The co-defendant’s case is awaiting adjudication. As for Sims, she had turned 18 on March 20 — 36 days before the incident.
Investigators arrested Sims and her alleged accomplice after locating them and the stolen vehicle in York, Pa. about 12 hours after the carjacking, which occurred at approximately 7 p.m. April 25 on Honaker Street near Keesey Lane, reported Perryville Police Department Chief Robert Nitz.
Hours after the incident, police reported that the suspects approached the elderly woman in the Royal Farms parking lot in the 5400 block of West Pulaski Highway (Route 40) and asked her for a short ride in her Nissan Altima.
The victim obliged and started driving toward downtown Perryville, as the suspects had requested, police said. Then one of the suspects asked her to turn onto Honaker Street, and she did, police added.
“When they got to the end of Honaker Street, the suspect in the front seat asked her to stop and then both suspects demanded that she exit the vehicle. When she did, the two suspects assaulted the woman. They threw her to the ground and drove away in her car,” Nitz outlined, before noting that PPD officers rushed to the scene at 7:06 p.m. April 25 after the incident was reported.
Paramedics treated the victim for injuries that, according to the charging document, were indicative of an assault. Court records indicate that the victim was able to take possession of a tan crock sandal belonging to one of the suspects while struggling with the teens during the assault and that she gave it to investigators, who kept the footwear as evidence.
In addition to searching for the stolen vehicle and the suspects in Perryville and the surrounding area, officers broadcasted a be-on-the-lookout (BOLO) over the police radio, Nitz reported. Investigators also entered information about the stolen vehicle and the carjacking incident into two national crime databases, which proved to be beneficial in the investigation, according to Nitz.
Police located the stolen Nissan in York, Pa. while handling an incident in that jurisdiction involving 10 suspects, including Sims and her companion, Nitz reported.
Authorities in York contacted PPD in the early-morning hours of April 26 after matching the Nissan they had recovered to the stolen one that PPD investigators had entered in the national databases, according to Nitz.
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