Carjacking

cember 2019, Judge William R. Carpenter convicted Mackrides of charges of robbery of a motor vehicle, robbery, attempted theft of a motor vehicle, simple assault and recklessly endangering other persons. In June 2020, Carpenter sentenced Mackrides to 7½ to 15 years in state prison.

However, Mackrides appealed his conviction and the state Superior Court granted his appeal last year and ordered a new trial.

Shortly before his new trial was to begin this month in front of Demchick-Alloy, Mackrides pleaded guilty.

The new sentence imposed by Demchick-Alloy essentially shaved a year off of the minimum sentence Makrides originally received from Carpenter.

Assistant District Attorney Tanner Beck argued for the identical 7½ to 15 year sentence that Mackrides originally received and relied on the previous testimony from victims who expressed the terror they felt during the incidents.

“This had an effect on the community and the victims in an immeasurable amount of ways,” said Beck, adding the victims don’t feel safe when they’re in their vehicles. “This wasn’t just one or two victims, this is five different sets of victims here and it just goes to the

danger that he poses to the community.”

Defense lawyer Francis Genovese represented Mackrides during the most recent court proceeding.

The crime spree unfolded about 7:30 p.m. March 17, 2019, when Mackrides approached a woman standing outside a residence along Blue Bell Springs Drive and as he asked her for the time grabbed her keys and entered her vehicle, according to the criminal complaint filed by Whitpain Township police officers Jonathan Gallagher and Bradly Potter.

The victim and her boyfriend attempted to stop Mackrides as he drove away, chasing the vehicle and at times hanging on, but were thwarted as Mackrides continued on with “erratic swerving,” police alleged.

During his getaway, Mackrides struck a curb and the Ford Focus eventually became disabled at Skippack Pike and DeKalb Pike and Mackrides abandoned the vehicle, according to the criminal complaint.

Police said Mackrides then approached a Mitsubishi Outlander vehicle, occupied by a woman and her teenage son, which was stopped at a red traffic signal at the intersection.

“The defendant opened the driver’s side door and told (the woman), ‘I need this car, get out!’” Gallagher and Potter alleged, adding Mackrides forcibly tried to remove the woman from the vehicle but she drove

off, dragging Mackrides a short distance before he broke free.

Mackrides then ran to a parking lot shared by a CVS and a Wawa and attempted to carjack a man and a woman who were in a Subaru Forester vehicle. Mackrides opened the driver’s side door and grabbed the man around his neck and attempted to “rip” him from the vehicle, police said.

The driver told his wife to run into the CVS to call for help and then he began to drive the vehicle in an attempt to break free from Mackrides’ grip, who was still hanging onto his neck, according to trial testimony.

Mackrides eventually fell out of the Subaru Forester and then ran toward a man who was entering a Mazda vehicle parked outside the Wawa and violently shoved the man out of the way and got into the driver’s seat.

At that time, Whitpain police arrived on the scene and Mackrides exited the Forester and fled on foot with police in pursuit.

Mackrides ran to the nearby parking lot of a pizza restaurant on DeKalb Pike where he attempted to steal the car of a man and his wife, according to testimony and court papers. As Mackrides forced his way into the driver’s seat police arrived and closed in and removed him from the vehicle at gunpoint.

“(Mackrides) surrendered and put his hands in the air,” police wrote in the arrest affidavit.