A Philadelphia man has been handed a hefty prison sentence after pleading guilty to a pair of armed carjackings that he carried out within days of each other. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, 20-year-old Richard Pridgen will serve 214 months in federal prison, followed by five years' supervised release, for his role in the two July 2023 crimes.
Pridgen's sentence also comes with the obligation to pay $11,709.82 in restitution. His criminal actions began swiftly to follow his release from juvenile state custody, where he had served time for numerous violent commercial robberies at gunpoint back in 2021. This transition back into society was marred by an escalation of his criminal activities, as confirmed by the court filings and statements in his case.
The first incident occurred on July 3, when Pridgen, with at least one other accomplice, held a victim at gunpoint and commandeered their blue Jeep. Merely three days later, on July 6, Pridgen, along with co-defendants Raheem Bivens and Raheim Brown, undertook yet another carjacking. Utilizing the Jeep acquired in the first crime, they forced a second victim to surrender his white Jeep—brandishing firearms with extended magazines while doing so.
The sequence of events culminated in a chase through Philadelphia's streets, with both stolen Jeeps ultimately crashing and police subsequently arresting all three perpetrators. In Pridgen's possession, police found identification belonging to the second carjacking victim, cementing his involvement in the crimes. Bivens and Brown also faced justice, having pleaded guilty in 2024 to one count of carjacking and one count of using, carrying, and brandishing a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence. "They were each sentenced to 14 years in prison and five years of supervised release," according to the Justice Department’s announcement.
The case against Pridgen and his co-defendants was brought to a close through the collaborative efforts of the Philadelphia Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Assistant United States Attorney Katherine Shulman and Special Assistant United States Attorney Alexander Bowerman led the prosecution that resulted in these significant sentences.
