MEN RESPONSIBLE FOR CARJACKING AND ROBBERIES PLEAD GUILTY IN FEDERAL COURT

COLUMBIA, South Carolina -- United States Attorney Reginald I. Lloyd announced today that KAREEM ABDUL SALAAM, age 23, and BRAHEEN TIMOTHY EARL WHITFIELD, age 26, both of Philadelphia, pled guilty this week to carjacking, armed robbery, and possessing a firearm in connection with the violent crimes.  The Government and the defense stipulated during the guilty plea hearing that SALAAM and WHITFIELD will receive a 29-year sentence for their crimes.  There is no parole in the federal system.

        Evidence in the case established that on October 21, 2005, at approximately 7:50 p.m., SALAAM approached a female from behind as she walked to her car in the parking lot behind J.C. Penney at Magnolia Mall.  SALAAM placed the gun to the back of the victim’s head and demanded her car keys.  The victim was forced to the ground, where she pleaded for her life telling SALAAM that she was the mother of small children.  SALAAM drove off in the victim’s car almost running over her.  SALAAM then met up with WHITFIELD and a female juvenile.  The three headed down I-95 in the stolen car stopping along the way to rob two hotels.  SALAAM and WHITFIELD robbed the Quality Inn in St. George, South Carolina and the Super 8 motel in Manning, South Carolina.  During both robberies, hotel employees were forced to the ground at gunpoint, while the two robbed the hotels of their monies.  The two were arrested on October 22, 2005, in Port Wentworth, Georgia after a high-speed chase with police.

SALAAM and WHITFIELD will be sentenced by United States District Judge

Bryan Harwell after presentence reports are prepared by the United States Probation Office.

        The case was investigated by the Florence Police Department, the Florence County Sheriff’s Office, the St. George Police Department, the Manning Police Department, the Port Wentworth Police Department in Georgia, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.   Assistant U.S. Attorney Rose Mary Parham of the Florence Office is prosecuting the case as part of Project CeaseFire an initiative that aggressively seeks to prosecute firearm and violent crime cases.