Potomac man sentenced to 9 years in prison for Bethesda armed carjacking

Matt Small | msmall@wtop.com
January 5, 2023, 8:35 AM

A 19-year-old man has been sentenced for his role in a June 2022 armed carjacking at a parking garage in Bethesda, Maryland. ... Herbert Randall, of Potomac, was sentenced to nine years in prison and five years of supervised probation upon release for charges of Armed Carjacking and Use of a Firearm in the Commission of a Crime of Violence on Tuesday by Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Christopher Fogleman. ... Randall had pleaded guilty to both counts in November 2022. ... Three co-defendants are being processed in juvenile court, according to the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office.

According to court documents, county police officers responded to a county parking garage at 4935 Saint Elmo Avenue in Bethesda on June 10, 2022, at approximately 11 p.m. ... Randall, who was 18 years old at the time, pointed a gun at a man and woman returning to their parked car. ... Pointing the 9 mm black ghost gun with an attached laser pointer to the man’s chest, Randall demanded the keys to the 2022 Hyundai Elantra, according to court documents. Randall and three teenagers then got in the vehicle and sped off toward Cordell Avenue.

The vehicle was located the next day by Montgomery County police officers, who conducted a tactical block at the intersection of Seven Locks Road and Bradley Boulevard in Bethesda. ... That’s where Randall was found with the car keys. He and a pair of female teenagers were all taken into custody. ... A ghost gun with an attached laser pointer, consistent with what police said was used in the armed carjacking was found in Randall’s backpack.



This ghost gun was located in Herbert Randall’s backpack following a June 10 armed carjacking in Bethesda, Md. (Courtesy Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office)

During sentencing, Judge Fogleman called the case “unusual” because the all involved were homegrown Bethesda residents from relatively wealthy families, according to Bethesda Beat. ... Stressing the need for deterrence amid a recent countywide spate of violence, Fogleman recommended Randall be admitted to the Patuxent Youthful Offenders Program while incarcerated.

Matt Small
Matt joined WTOP News at the start of 2020, after contributing to Washington’s top news outlet as an Associated Press journalist for nearly 18 years.

msmall@wtop.com

Four teen assailants, three victims: Carjacking in downtown Bethesda leaves lasting impact

by Em Espey
January 4, 2023 7:00 am

A Montgomery County Circuit Court judge sentenced Herbert “Bertie” Randall to nine years in prison for an armed carjacking incident involving Randall and three other teenagers. At the hearing, Randall’s mother accused a broken medical system of failing to help treat her son’s diagnosed mental illness, while the judge and victims stressed the need for deterrence amid a recent county-wide spate of violence.

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Fogleman and prosecutor Peter Larson both echoed the victim’s concern. Fogleman noted that the teenagers were “homegrown” Bethesda residents and did not come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, making this case “unusual.” He also referenced the recent murder of 62-year-old family man Charles Reynolds in a Silver Spring parking garage as evidence of a broader stranger-on-stranger trend of violence.

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Mental health complications

Licensed clinical psychologist Jessica Hasson, hired by defense attorney Tom DeGonia, presented testimony to the judge regarding Randall’s mental health diagnoses. After reviewing over 600 pages of records and meeting with the patient and his mother, she diagnosed Randall with schizophrenia. Over the years, she said, he’s been committed to psychiatric wards five times and received a variety of severe diagnoses including psychotic and bipolar disorders.

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Randall’s mother apologized to the victims in open court and asked the judge for leniency on her son’s behalf. She said she’s spent close to $1 million trying to get him the mental health support she believes he needs. After each of his psychiatric commitments, she said he received no follow-up care from the institutions. She blamed a broken medical system for failing her son and said she believed he “slipped through the cracks.”

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A message to the community

Before issuing his sentence, Fogleman addressed the defendant directly. ... “What made you think it was a good idea to get a gun?” he asked the teenager. “That doesn’t sound like something attributable to mental health.” ... “At the time, it was easily available,” Randall responded. He said on the day of the incident, after drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana laced with fentanyl, he “lost grip on reality.” He also said he grew up seeing guns in movies and “thought it was cool.”

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