15-Year-Old Who Pleaded Guilty to D.C. Uber Driver Killing to Be Committed Until She Is 21
A 15-year-old girl involved in the carjacking and death of Washington, D.C., Uber driver Mohammed Anwar pleaded guilty to felony murder last month and was sentenced on Friday to spend the next six years in the D.C. Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services.
She received the maximum sentence and prosecutors dropped all other charges—such as armed carjacking—following the plea deal. The 15-year-old girl will be committed until she turns 21.
She and an accomplice, a 13-year-old girl, attempted to carjack Anwar—a grandfather and Pakistani immigrant—in D.C. in March. A graphic video circulating on Twitter showed the two girls attack the 66-year-old with what eyewitnesses reported to be a stun gun.
The girls then tried to drive the car away with Anwar still hanging onto the side of the door. They crashed, the car flipping on its side. Anwar was taken to the hospital where he later died.
The 13-year-old pleaded guilty to second-degree murder on Thursday and is set to receive her sentence on July 6, when she could also receive a maximum sentence that would keep her incarcerated until she is 21 as well. According to a judge, she has also pleaded guilty to two other previous offenses, including another unauthorized use of a vehicle.
WUSA9 reported that, before sentencing the older teen, said it was "incomprehensible" that a child would be so "unfeeling." D.C. judge Lynn Leibovitz said she hoped by that time the girl is released, she's "never in a position to do anything like this again."
WUSA9 reported that Anwar's family had a chance to speak directly to the girl during the court sentencing. "There is so much our family has endured because of you," Anwar's niece said.
"I cannot begin to tell you how agonizing and devastating it is to watch your loved one die so violently, and have the world view it as entertainment on websites like Worldstar Hip Hop and TMZ," she continued. "We are haunted by the image of his broken, crumpled body lying on the pavement, and him struggling to move. It is incredibly heartbreaking to watch the respondents lack empathy, and immediately cry out for their cell phones, while he is laying literally at their feet."
From a room at a youth detention facility on Friday, the 15-year-old gave an apology to Anwar's family, according to WUSA9.
"No matter how much stuff I've been through, I never wanted to hurt someone," she said. "None of this was intentional, in other words, I never thought this would go through.… If I could take it back, I would."
Newsweek reached out to The Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia for comment.
