Released by the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office
MOUNT HOLLY — Burlington County Prosecutor Robert D. Bernardi announced that a 36-year-old Shamong man pled guilty in Superior Court to slamming a 77-year-old woman to the ground in the parking lot of a Tabernacle food store last year and then driving off in her car to purchase drugs.
Roy C. Patterson Jr., of 152 Tuckerton Road, Shamong, admitted that he overpowered the woman and drove off in her vehicle on June 15, 2011 in the parking lot of Murphy’s Marketplace on Medford Lakes Road in Tabernacle.
Patterson pled guilty to Carjacking and Robbery. Under terms of the plea agreement, Patterson will be sentenced as a persistent offender and will receive 25 years in New Jersey state prison. He must serve 21 years and three months before he is eligible for parole. The Hon. Jeanne T. Covert, J.S.C. set sentencing for September 7.
Patterson pulled the woman from her car and slammed her, face first, onto the pavement. He then got into her vehicle and, while backing up, struck the woman with the driver’s side door, which was opened. Moments earlier, Patterson had taken car keys away from a 31-year-old man and unsuccessfully attempted to drive off in the man’s vehicle.
Patterson was apprehended approximately 45 minutes after the carjacking when he crashed the vehicle into a light pole in Somerdale, Camden County, and then attempted to flee on foot. He was charged with several motor vehicle violations, including Driving While Intoxicated.
Patterson, who is housed in Burlington County Jail on $250,000 bail, stated in court that he was on his way to Camden to purchase drugs when he crashed the car.
Detectives from the New Jersey State Police investigated the case.
