CHARLOTTE, N.C. – U.S. District Judge Frank D. Whitney sentenced Ricky Lewis Bush, 21, of Charlotte, to 78 months in prison late yesterday, for carjacking and gun charges, announced William T. Stetzer, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. Judge Whitney also ordered Bush to serve three years under court supervision after completing his prison term and to pay restitution to the victim of the carjacking.
Acting U.S. Attorney Stetzer is joined in making today’s announcement by Vincent C. Pallozzi, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Charlotte Field Division, and Chief Johnny Jennings of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD).
According to filed court documents and the sentencing hearing, on the night of January 13, 2021, Ricky Lewis Bush and his co-defendant, Jontez Xavier McLeod, carjacked at gunpoint a female victim identified in court documents as C.K. Court records show that C.K. was exiting her vehicle which was parked at the parking lot of an apartment complex in Charlotte, when Bush and McLeod approached the victim. Bush pointed a firearm at the victim, and the two men grabbed the victim and pulled her from her vehicle. Bush and McLeod then got into the victim’s car and fled the scene, leaving the victim in the parking lot.
According to court documents, CMPD officers located the victim’s car. McLeod was driving the vehicle and Bush was in the front passenger seat. When officers attempted to stop the vehicle, the defendants sped off in an attempt to evade the police. CMPD officers pulled over the vehicle and arrested Bush and McLeod. Over the course of the investigation, CMPD officers recovered several videos from Bush’s cell phone, taken shortly before and after the carjacking. In one of the videos, Bush is holding the same firearm used in the carjacking.
On November 12, 2020, Bush pleaded guilty to carjacking and brandishing a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence. He is currently in federal custody. Upon designation of a federal facility, he will be transferred to the custody of the federal Bureau of Prisons.
McLeod has also pleaded guilty for his role in the case and will be sentenced at a later date.
The ATF and CMPD investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Taylor G. Stout, of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte, is prosecuting the case.
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