Disabled Man Who Stole Taxi Sent Back to Prison

A disabled Sacramento man who stole a taxicab at gunpoint after the driver helped him from his wheelchair into the cab has been sentenced to two years and eight months in prison.

Dwayne Benton, 30, hailed the cab at the Greyhound bus station June 15 and, after being helped into the taxi asked to be taken to University Medical Center, according to court records.

Benton told the cabdriver that he had a problem, and when the driver looked over, he reported, he saw Benton holding what appeared to be a pistol.

Benton ordered the driver out of the cab and drove off, court records said. Police arrested him after a chase that ended when he crashed the taxi.

Benton admitted his guilt to a probation officer, saying that he was “hungry, flat broke and had no place to stay” and needed to get to the medical center. But Benton denied that he forcibly took the cab from the driver. He said he stole the taxi when he spotted it sitting at the curb with its keys in the ignition.

Benton was disabled in 1988 by spinal tuberculosis while in prison at the California Medical Facility. According to records, Benton had been out of prison for only six days when he hijacked the taxi. His previous convictions were for second-degree burglary, possession of stolen property and robbery in 1978, 1980 and 1982.