Suspect in Fairfield carjacking of BMW gets six years in plea deal

“He regrets his actions. He understands things could have been much worse.” Assistant Public Defender Joanna Carloni, referring to her client, Trevon Crowe

BRIDGEPORT — A judge on Friday sentenced a Bloomfield man to serve six years in prison for robbing the owner of a BMW who listed it for sale online after arranging to meet him in a Fairfield parking lot.

While a plea deal called for 26-year-old Trevon Crowe to face up to eight years behind bars, Judge Tracy Lee Dayton said she took into consideration a “complicated and chaotic” upbringing that included an abusive stepfather who killed three people.

Crowe pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery and carrying a pistol without a permit Feb. 20.

Police said Crowe and a co-defendant, Saviyon Dawson, arranged to meet the victim, the owner of a BMW who listed it online, at a Tunxis Hill Cutoff parking lot.

But instead they robbed the man at gunpoint and drove off in his vehicle. Within minutes, police received calls that the car had been abandoned near Coolidge Street and Commerce Drive. The two men were then apprehended inside a nearby car rental business, where police found guns hidden in a bathroom.

Supervisory Assistant State’s Attorney Michael DeJoseph noted the crime was not spur of the moment, but “required planning and preparation,” asking the judge to strike a balance between the seriousness of the crime and Crowe accepting responsibility.

Crowe’s attorney, Assistant Public Defender Joanna Carloni, asked the judge to sentence him to six years, saying he had “one of the most traumatic childhoods that I’ve ever seen,” including the homicides committed by his stepfather.

“He was very traumatized by that,” Carloni said. “He felt that he and his family could have been those victims.”

She said Crowe stayed on the right track growing up through sports, but became addicted to pills after an injury in high school. He has two children whose lives he’s involved with, and support from family to pursue work in the culinary arts when he gets out of prison, Carloni said.

“He was doing a lot of drugs,” she said. “He regrets his actions. He understands things could have been much worse.”

“I take responsibility for my actions,” Crowe told the judge.

Dayton noted that a letter Crowe wrote prior to the sentencing seemed genuine. She also acknowledged his troubled childhood.

“Obviously it’s not an excuse for pulling a gun one someone,” she said. “In fact, you would hope it would be the opposite, because you know you’ve been on the receiving end of violence before and how scary that is, and the impact it leaves on people.”

Charges of first-degree robbery, carjacking, carrying a pistol without a permit, and criminal possession of a firearm remain pending against Dawson, who is being held in lieu of $750,000 bond while awaiting trial.