A Chevy Chase man has pleaded guilty to carjacking and armed robbery after he was charged with carjacking a taxi driver at knifepoint in 2024 and robbing another victim at gunpoint in 2022 in Washington, D.C., according to a Friday statement from the office of the U.S. Attorney of the District of Columbia.
Demonta King, 18, pleaded guilty Friday in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia to one count of armed carjacking and one count of armed robbery. King’s sentencing is scheduled for June 16, the statement said. Mark Rollins of D.C. law firm Rollins and Chan, King’s lawyer, declined to comment.
According to the statement, King approached a taxi driver with a knife at about 1:50 a.m. on Nov. 18, 2024, in the 5000 block of Fort Totten Drive Northeast in the District. He announced the robbery and ordered the victim to give him everything and hand over his keys. King stabbed the victim in the hand, causing him to drop the keys. King then picked up the keys and took the driver’s phone, his driver’s license, bank cards and other personal items and drove away in the taxi.
Officers later saw the taxi traveling at “a high rate of speed” in Hyattsville where King crashed the vehicle and exited on foot. He was apprehended and arrested after police chased him.
King has been in custody since he was arrested for the carjacking.
The armed robbery charge resulted from an incident on Aug. 26, 2022, when King robbed a person at gunpoint, taking the victim’s backpack and cellphone and hitting the victim in the face with the gun in the 100 block of Gallatin Street and First Place Northeast in the District. He was prosecuted for this offense as an adult, according to the statement.
