Man Sentenced to More Than 1 Year After Pleading Guilty to Stealing Cars From Norfolk Hospital Parking Lot, Car Dealership Lot
NORFOLK, Va. — Antwann Jamar Whitehead, 42, was sentenced on Friday, Jan. 24, to serve one year and four months in prison after he pleaded guilty to stealing two cars, one of which the police found the next day using the Flock license plate recognition system, and failing to appear in court for one of his subsequent hearings.
Around 8:30 p.m. on Oct. 4, 2023, Mr. Whitehead stole car keys while he was inside Sentara Leigh Memorial Hospital and then stole the vehicle matching those keys from the parking lot. The keys and car belonged to a hospital nurse who had left the keys on a countertop while she was assisting a patient. The nurse reported the stolen vehicle that evening, and Norfolk Police submitted the vehicle information to the Flock license plate recognition system. The following afternoon, on Oct. 5, 2023, a patrol officer received a Flock notification that the stolen Tahoe was being driven near the Five Points intersection. The officer located the vehicle while it was being driven by Mr. Whitehead and pulled Mr. Whitehead over. Mr. Whitehead waived his legal rights and admitted to being at the hospital the previous evening. Surveillance footage from the hospital showed Mr. Whitehead stealing both the keys and the Tahoe. Mr. Whitehead was charged with felony grand theft of an automobile and initially held without bail. A judge later granted Mr. Whitehead a bond in a subsequent Norfolk General District Court hearing.
On Dec. 27, 2023, Mr. Whitehead stole another set of keys and a vehicle from the Trimax Auto Group car dealership on North Military Highway. Mr. Whitehead entered the dealership and inquired about a 2012 Ford Mustang. An employee who was in the middle of assisting another customer allowed Mr. Whitehead to use the keys to Mustang to have a look at the car while he waited. Mr. Whitehead instead used the keys to steal the Mustang and drive away in it. Mr. Whitehead eventually abandoned the Mustang, and police found the car with paperwork belonging to Mr. Whitehead inside of it.
On Feb. 27, 2024, Mr. Whitehead failed to appear in General District Court for his preliminary hearing on the first car theft. In October 2024, the Norfolk Commonwealth’ Attorney’s Office secured direct indictments from a grand jury for the second car theft and for Mr. Whitehead’s failure to appear in court for a felony offense.
On Jan. 24, Mr. Whitehead pleaded guilty as charged to both counts of felony grand theft of an automobile and felony failure to appear, and he agreed to serve one year and four months in prison with another 11 years and eight months suspended on the conditions that he be of uniform good behavior for five years, complete an indeterminate period of supervised probation, and have his license suspended for 60 days following his release. That sentence was in compliance with Mr. Whitehead’s state sentencing guidelines. Judge Jamilah D. LeCruise accepted Mr. Whitehead’s plea agreement and sentenced him per the agreement.
“Once again, good police work and the Flock license-plate reader system enabled a key break in a car-theft case, allowing the police to make a quick arrest without encroaching on the privacy of innocent people,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi. “By failing to come to court, Mr. Whitehead only made his situation worse, and that is why we charged him with the additional felony of failing to appear. We will continue the responsible use of technology to hold accountable the people who commit thefts and other crimes in our city.”
Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney J. Drew Fairbanks prosecuted Mr. Whitehead’s cases, and Norfolk Police Detectives Thomas W. Bowen and Kavoris J. Fruster led the investigations.
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