A Phoenix man who shot his victim in the leg, beat him with a pistol, and then tried to burn the stolen car was sentenced to 171 months in federal prison for a 2022 carjacking outside a Peoria business. Adonijah Ortega, now 23, pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the attack, which happened in a parking lot near 91st and Northern avenues on August 8, 2022.
Ortega approached a man in the parking lot of that Peoria business and demanded money and the vehicle's keys, according to the AZ Family report on the case, which was built on details from the U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Arizona. During the confrontation, Ortega shot the victim in the leg and struck him in the head several times with a pistol before shooting at the victim's vehicle and fleeing in it, per the same account. The victim then walked to a nearby business to get help. More specifically, the carjacking occurred in the parking lot of a Target retail store near that intersection, according to 12News.
After fleeing the scene, Ortega tried to destroy the stolen car entirely, dousing its interior in gasoline and firing gunshots at it before abandoning the vehicle, according to Daily Independent. He was found three days later, on August 11, 2022, at an apartment complex following a joint investigation involving FBI agents along with officers from the Peoria and Phoenix Police Departments, the outlet reports.
Federal Charges Carried Mandatory Prison Time
Ortega was charged with carjacking and with discharge of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, and he ultimately pleaded guilty to both. The firearm charge, brought under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c), mandates a minimum 10-year sentence for discharging a weapon during a violent crime, and federal law requires that time be served consecutively to any sentence for the underlying offense, according to reporting from the New York Criminal Lawyer Blog. Judges have no authority to let that portion of a sentence run alongside other counts.
The case landed in federal rather than state court because it was charged under the federal carjacking statute, 18 U.S.C. § 2119, which requires prosecutors to show the vehicle involved was shipped, transported, or received in interstate commerce, according to LegalMatch. That statute allows penalties of up to 15 years or life depending on whether bodily injury or death resulted. Nationally, U.S. Sentencing Commission data for fiscal year 2025 shows that every defendant convicted under Section 924(c) received prison time, with average sentences of 149 months across all tiers, meaning Ortega's 171-month term came in above that national average, per the United States Sentencing Commission.
U.S. Attorney Points to Federal Crackdown Initiative
United States Attorney Timothy Courchaine said his office remains committed to the Department of Justice's Project Safe Neighborhoods, a nationwide initiative aimed at combating violent crime through strong partnerships, rapid response, and strict prosecution. “Violent perpetrators like Mr. Ortega should know there is no safe place for them in Arizona,” Courchaine said, according to AZ Family's report on the sentencing.
Project Safe Neighborhoods was created by the Department of Justice in 2001 and updated in May 2021, coordinating federal, state, and local law enforcement across all 94 federal judicial districts around data-driven strategies targeting violent firearm offenders, according to the Department of Justice. A systematic academic review published in 2022 examined 21 empirical studies of the program and found it successfully reduced local violent crime in 91.9% of the outcomes evaluated, per research from Taylor & Francis.
How Peoria Compares on Violent Crime
Peoria recorded 512 total violent crimes in 2024, a 20.4% increase from the prior year, including 49 robberies and 373 aggravated assaults, according to OpenCrime. Even so, the city's 2024 violent crime rate of 254.7 per 100,000 residents remained below the national average of 359.1. Statewide reporting published this year found that while Phoenix and Tucson report Arizona's highest per-capita crime rates, suburban West Valley communities like Peoria generally maintain lower violent crime rates than the statewide average of 422 violent crimes per 100,000 residents, according to the Daily Independent's separate coverage of Arizona crime trends.
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