Browse
Log in / Register
Share
A federal judge on Wednesday handed down a 14½-year prison sentence to Kenneth Merritt, the second man convicted in the high-profile, video-recorded carjacking that terrorized a Beverly family in November 2023. U.S. District Judge Sunil R. Harjani imposed the term after Merritt, 29, pleaded guilty to federal carjacking and firearm charges.
The attack unfolded on the evening of November 2, 2023, when Merritt and his accomplice Damarri Conner, both dressed in black with hoods and masks, took a bus to Beverly. They lurked near a home in the 9300 block of South Pleasant Street, waiting for the family to return. A 46-year-old woman and her 12-year-old daughter had just driven home from the girl’s volleyball practice and pulled into the detached garage.
As the mother got out of the car and started walking toward the back door, the two men sprang from the shadows. Surveillance video captured Merritt throwing the woman to the ground and violently yanking her purse away. When she screamed, Conner rushed in, punched her in the face, and pressed a loaded gun against her at point-blank range as she tried to shield herself.
The woman’s husband dashed outside to help. Conner racked the gun’s slide and aimed it at him, threatening to shoot. Fearing for his family’s lives, the husband tried to calm the situation by showing the carjackers how to start the family’s Audi. Prosecutors said both men shouted threats, including “you got three seconds, shoot her” and “shoot her if she moves,” before speeding away.
Police quickly linked Merritt to the crime using surveillance footage that showed him using the husband’s American Express card at a BP gas station while still wearing the same clothes from the carjacking. Merritt was on parole at the time, having served half of three concurrent 10-year sentences for two robberies and a felon-in-possession-of-a-firearm charge. Those earlier cases were initially filed as aggravated carjackings but later reduced through plea deals.
Conner, meanwhile, had stolen the keys to the family’s Range Rover during the attack. Six days later, Chicago police attempted to stop him while he was driving the stolen Audi. Conner fled, leading officers on a high-speed chase with a passenger inside. Officers ultimately recovered the Audi, but Conner returned to the victims’ home on November 14 and used the stolen keys to take the Range Rover from the front of the house. Law enforcement tracked the vehicle to Conner’s neighborhood and found him hiding in a closet. A gun was recovered from the vehicle he had been driving.
The case against Conner took a darker turn after his arrest. While detained at the Cook County Jail, he allegedly ordered a hit on his own stepfather, who had identified Conner in surveillance images during
