BEAUMONT, Texas — An Amarillo man has pleaded guilty to several federal violations in the Eastern District of Texas after a crime spree from Beaumont to Lufkin.
35-year-old Jamelle Antoine Parker pleaded guilty to carjacking and a Hobbs Act Robbery on December 11, 2023. U.S. District Judge Marcia A. Crone presided over the trial.
On April 1, 2023, Parker approached a woman as she was putting air in her tires at a gas station on Washington Boulevard in Beaumont, according to an Eastern District of Texas news release.
Parker demanded that the woman give him her car while reaching in his waistband for what the woman assumed was a gun.
She ran to a nearby store and Parker stole her vehicle and fled to the Criss Cross convenience store on Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway.
Parker entered the store, told the clerk he had a firearm and demanded money from the register while threatening to kill the clerk, according to the release.
The clerk complied and gave Parker the money. Parker then left the store in the stolen vehicle and drove to Lufkin.
In Lufkin he crashed the vehicle into the Big's convenience store on West Frank Avenue.
Parker entered the convenience store and again told the clerk he had a firearm and demanded money. Once he got the money, Parker ran to a nearby Whataburger.
There, he approached a vehicle in the drive-through lane and demanded the driver give him the vehicle, while asking the driver if he “wanted to die today.”, according to the release.
When the driver got out of the vehicle, Parker grabbed him by the neck and pushed him aside, the released said.
Parker then began speeding away in the vehicle, towards a responding officer.
The officer shot Parker in the legs and sustained non-life threatening injuries.
After a brief chase Parker crashed the vehicle and was taken into custody.
On May 3, 2023 Parker was indicted by a federal grand jury. He faces up to 20 years in federal prison.
"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 gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone," the release states.
The case is being investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Beaumont Police Department and the Lufkin Police Department. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Russell James.
