Chicago Man Gets 14.5 Years For Role In 'Heinous And Violent' Carjacking In Beverly

CHICAGO—A 23-year-old Chicago man was handed a 14 and a half year sentence in a federal prison for his role in an armed carjacking that shocked the Beverly community in 2023.

Damarri Conner pleaded guilty earlier this year to federal carjacking and firearm offenses. U.S. District Judge Sunil R. Harjani sentenced Conner to 14 and a half years in federal prison on April 8. Conner pleaded guilty to the charges earlier this year.

His alleged accomplice, Kenneth Merritt, 29, of Chicago, also pleaded guilty earlier this year to carjacking and firearm offenses. Judge Harjani scheduled Merritt’s sentencing for June 9 at 1:30 p.m. at the Dirksen Federal Building in downtown Chicago.

During the evening of Nov. 2, 2023, a 46-year-old woman and her 12-year-old daughter had just returned to their home in the 9300 block of South Pleasant Avenue. They were exiting their Audi sedan when Chicago police said they were approached by two men, later identified as Conner and Merritt.

Doorbell-cam video described by prosecutors as “horrifying” showed the woman being brutally pushed to the ground. Federal prosecutors said Conner punched the woman in the face, causing her to fall to the ground, and then pointed a loaded handgun at her.

Her daughter ran into the house as the woman’s 46-year-old husband came out to intervene. Trying to calm Conner and Merritt down with instructions for starting the Audi, he, too, was robbed at gunpoint, according to police. The pair are alleged to have fled in the couple’s Audi. The vehicle was later found in the 4th Police District.

Conner, having stolen the key fobs to the couple’s other car—a Range Rover—during the carjacking, returned to the family’s home a few weeks later on Nov. 14, 2023, and took the Range Rover from in front of the house, prosecutors said.

Law enforcement was able to track the Range Rover by plate readers and POD cameras to Conner’s neighborhood and later found him hiding in the closet of a residence, leading to his arrest.

Conner’s sentence was announced by Andrew S. Boutros, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Douglas S. DePodesta, special Agent-in-charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI, and Larry Snelling, superintendent of the Chicago Police Department.

“Carjackings are among the most personal and terrifying crimes committed in this District,” assistant U.S. attorney Elie Zenner argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum in Conner’s case. “This crime was heinous and violent. The trauma he inflicted on his victims will take years to repair.”

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- 2 Charged In ‘Appalling’ Armed Carjacking In Beverly