Greenbelt, Maryland – Tray David Sherman, age 27, of Washington, D.C. pleaded guilty on Friday, July 1, 2022, to kidnapping.
The guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Erek L. Barron; Special Agent in Charge Wayne Jacobs of the Federal Bureau of Investigation – Washington Field Office Criminal Division; Special Agent in Charge Thomas J. Sobocinski of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office; and Chief Malik Aziz of the Prince George’s County Police Department.
According to his guilty plea, on February 3, 2021, Sherman and his co-defendants Darius Young a/k/a “Mup”, Christopher Allen Young, Anthony Erik Hebron, and Lamar Perkins, worked together to kidnap a victim from a Maryland casino and hotel.
As stated in his guilty plea, Sherman and Hebron met Victim A at the hotel and casino, where they told Victim A that they would get women and money for Victim A if Victim A got them cocaine and accompanied them to Southeast Washington, D.C. At approximately 7:30 a.m., Victim A agreed to travel to Southeast Washington, D.C. in Sherman’s car with Hebron.
At 7:54 a.m., Sherman, Hebron, and Victim A arrived in D.C., where Victim A obtained cocaine from Victim A’s cocaine supplier and returned to Sherman’s car. Victim A then agreed to travel to a location with Sherman and Hebron in Southeast, D.C., where Victim A believed that Sherman and Hebron would provide Victim A with women and/or money in exchange for cocaine. Sherman then drove Hebron and Victim A to Southeast D.C.
At 8:12 a.m., Young received a call from Hebron. A minute later, Young called Mup to report that Sherman and Hebron had “snatched” Victim 1. By 8:30 a.m., Sherman’s vehicle arrived at a location in Southeast D.C. where Young and Mup entered Sherman’s vehicle with Hebron, Sherman, and Victim A inside. Hebron then pointed a gun at Victim A while conspiracy members took Victim A’s cocaine, cellphone, wallet, watch, and hotel key.
Sherman, Hebron, Young, and Mup then demanded the code to the safe in Victim A’s hotel room. When Victim A refused, Hebron struck Victim A in the forehead with the gun. In response, Victim A provided the code to his safe. Young and Mup then exited Sherman’s vehicle with Victim A while Sherman and Hebron drove back to Victim A’s hotel room.
As Hebron and Sherman traveled back to the hotel and casino, Mup and Christopher Young led Victim A at gunpoint to a utility room inside a Southeast D.C. apartment building. Inside the utility room, Mup and Young repeatedly assaulted Victim A, threatened Victim A’s life, demanded Victim A’s PIN number to his ATM card, and demanded information about the items located in his hotel room. Young and Mup then relayed this information to Hebron and Sherman by phone.
After changing clothes, Hebron and Sherman accessed Victim A’s hotel room where they stole Victim A’s property, including a gaming system, $1,500 in casino chips, and approximately $6,000 in cash.
Sherman and Hebron then fled from the hotel in Sherman’s car and communicated with their co-conspirators to confirm that they had finished stealing Victim A’s items and were ready to link up with the other conspiracy members. Moments later, law enforcement located Victim A, who had sustained several injuries, including a bloody wound on his forehead, a broken nose, and cuts on his mouth and eye.
As stated in his guilty plea, on February 8, 2021, law enforcement executed a search warrant on Sherman’s vehicle where officers located three black gloves, a black mask, and the same clothing that Sherman and Hebron wore during the robbery. Sherman was subsequently arrested on March 31, 2021, in Germantown, Maryland. At the time of his arrest, officers executed a second search warrant on Sherman’s vehicle, where they located a digital scale with white residue, a black vest with ballistic plates, a .40 caliber handgun, and 27 rounds of .40 caliber ammunition.
Co-defendants Anthony Erik Hebron, a/k/a “Pain”, age 29; Lamar Jamal Perkins, age 28; and Christopher Allen Young, a/k/a “40,” age 27, all of Washington, D.C pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit kidnapping. Hebron is expected to be sentenced to 14 years in federal prison at his sentencing hearing on August 8, 2022, at 10:00 a.m. Christopher Young was sentenced to more than 10 years in federal prison on May 4, 2022. Perkins was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison on May 23, 2022. Darius Young, a/k/a “Mup” was sentenced to 13 years in federal prison on June 27, 2022.
Sherman and the government have agreed that, if the Court accepts the plea agreement, Sherman will be sentenced to no less than 8 years and no more than 10.5 years in federal prison. U.S. District Judge George J. Hazel has scheduled sentencing for October 12, 2022, at 10 a.m.
This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. PSN, an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime, is the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.
This case is an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.
United States Attorney Erek L. Barron commended the FBI Washington and the FBI Baltimore Field Offices and the Prince George’s County Police Department for their work in the investigation. Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey J. Izant and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Jared Engelking, who prosecuted the case, and thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Leah Grossi for her assistance.
For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/project-safe-neighborhoods-psnexile and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.
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