Pacoima Man Given 8 Years in Carjacking

A Pacoima man was sentenced Wednesday to eight years in state prison after a jury convicted him of stealing a Chevrolet Beretta during a carjacking.

A Van Nuys Superior Court jury on Wednesday convicted Jason Jarvest Reese, 18, of robbery in the Sept. 25 carjacking near Wilbur Avenue and Roscoe Boulevard in Northridge.

Joseph Soto, a 20-year-old college student, testified that he was sitting in his car waiting for friends who lived nearby when Reese and other gunmen approached.

“They all pointed guns at him,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Andrew W. Diamond. “They took his car and his pager.”

Soto identified Reese as the man who was “holding the biggest gun” and then fled in the stolen vehicle, according to Diamond.

When Reese drove away, the other accomplices fled in two other cars. Several of Soto’s friends followed the vehicle and were able to flag down a police car, Diamond said. Reese was apprehended in the stolen vehicle near the intersection of Roscoe and Sepulveda boulevards in North Hills.

Police recovered a sawed-off .30-caliber rifle in the car.

Immediately after the jury verdict was read, Judge John Fisher sentenced Reese to five years for the robbery, adding three years because he used a gun during the crime.