Source: Office of United States Attorneys
CHICAGO — Three men who committed multiple carjackings and robberies in Chicago, including carjacking a vehicle with an infant in the back seat and pistol-whipping a convenience store clerk, have been sentenced to federal prison terms ranging from 15 to 22 years.
DAMANDRE HENLEY, DWIGHT HASBERRY, TYLER OATES-NELSON, and DAVARIO MCDOWELL engaged in a series of carjackings and robberies in Chicago in the overnight hours of Sept. 28 and 29, 2022. The four defendants pleaded guilty last year to federal carjacking, armed robbery, and firearm charges.
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Manish Shah sentenced Oates-Nelson, 29, of Chicago, to 15 years in federal prison. On Wednesday, Judge Shah sentenced McDowell, 25, of Chicago, to 18 years. On Feb. 11, 2025, Judge Shah sentenced Henley, 28, of Chicago, to 22 years. Hasberry, 31, of Chicago, is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Shah on March 20, 2025, at 1:30 p.m.
Four of the carjackings occurred in the early morning hours of Sept. 28, 2022. The carjacking involving the infant occurred late that evening, when the four men carjacked a Volkswagen Tiguan in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood. After the men drove to the neighborhood in Oates-Nelson’s vehicle, Henley, Hansberry, and McDowell pointed guns at the driver and the infant in a rear car seat and ordered them out of the vehicle. One of the carjackers patted down the driver and removed a registered handgun from his pocket. The driver removed the infant from the car before Henley, Hansberry, and McDowell got into the Tiguan and drove away.
A short time later, the four men, now all traveling in the stolen Tiguan, drove to Chicago’s Ravenswood Manor neighborhood, where Henley, McDowell, and Hansberry robbed one victim at gunpoint of their cell phone, wallet, and keys, and another victim of their backpack.
The four men then robbed a nearby 7-Eleven convenience store. With Oates-Nelson waiting in the stolen Tiguan, Henley, McDowell, and Hansberry entered the store carrying guns. Henley used his gun to strike a store clerk in the head while forcing him to open the cash register. The defendants fled the store with cash, cigarettes, and liquor bottles.
The sentences were announced by Morris Pasqual, Acting 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. The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Elie Zenner.