New Haven Man, 20, Gets 7 Years In Federal Prison For Carjacking: Feds

NEW HAVEN, CT — A 20-year-old New Haven man was sentenced to spend the next seven years in a federal lockup for carjacking and conspiracy offenses, the Justice Department announced.

According to US Attorney for CT Vanessa Roberts Avery, court documents and statements made in court, between March and July 2022, Tihaja Ortiz-Tucker and others posed as interested buyers of cars advertised by Connecticut residents on Facebook Marketplace.

On three occasions, Ortiz-Tucker and his co-conspirators arranged to meet in person with the victim-sellers for the purported purpose of test-driving and buying the cars, prosecutors said. Once the test drives were over, Ortiz-Tucker and his co-conspirators stole, at gunpoint, the vehicles, as well as certificates of title, bills of sale, and other ownership documents, Avery noted in a news release.

On at least two occasions, Ortiz-Tucker posed as the legitimate owner of stolen motor vehicles, advertised them for sale on the OfferUp online platform, and sold them to unwitting purchasers, according to Avery.

Ortiz-Tucker also participated in two carjackings of Uber drivers in May 2022, federal authorities said. In both instances, an Uber driver picked up the carjacker in New Haven and drove to Wallingford where the cars were taken from the drivers at gunpoint, the US Attorney said, with both cars later recovered in the same area of Hamden.

Ortiz-Tucker was arrested in July 2022 and on May 30, he pleaded guilty to three counts of taking a motor vehicle from a person by force, violence, and intimidation, aka carjacking, and one count of conspiracy, records show. He's been in custody since his arrest.

Avery added that, after Ortiz-Tucker’s sentencing, Ruben Montano, 20, of New Haven, was sentenced to 48 months of imprisonment and three years of supervised release. On May 2, 2023, Montano, also detained, pleaded guilty to one count of carjacking, admitting that he participated in one of these carjackings with Ortiz-Tucker in July 2022, and the subsequent sale of the vehicle, per Avery.

This case as investigated by the FBI's Safe Streets Violent Crime Task Force, the Connecticut State Police and the Wallingford, New Haven, Hamden, Waterbury, and Bridgeport police departments. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sarah P. Karwan and Tara E. Levens.

In a news release, Avery "encouraged those who sell and purchase items online, and need to meet an individual in person to complete the sale, to use a visible, monitored location."

It was also suggested that people contact your local police department to see if it offers a monitored meeting location, or search online for a nearby monitored location.