If there’s one thing Florida loves more than getting its ass kicked by the University of Georgia, it’s letting people do pretty much whatever they want with their guns. So imagine our surprise when a Florida jury decided it actually wasn’t cool for a dealer to carjack a customer who had an issue setting up autopay and happened to be an immigrant.
Erik Hadad and his family ran Guru Auto Sales in Miramar, Florida north of Miami. According to the Department of Justice, in October 2023, they sold a 2020 Honda Accord to a victim identified only as a 24-year-old Haitian immigrant. He financed the car, signed all the paperwork and drove off in the new-to-him Accord. The victim then tried to set up autopay on the loan, but the first payment didn’t go through.
It’s not clear why that happened exactly, but come on. Let anyone who’s never run into a single issue with autopay cast the first stone. When he discovered the problem, he made sure the loan company got its money and also paid the late fee. It doesn’t appear that he had any additional late payments following the first one.
Unfortunately for the victim, they didn’t know that part of the contract that Guru had with the loan company said that if he was late on a payment in the first two months, the dealership had to buy the loan back. Presumably, they could have still sold the loan to another company, but the victim’s account was current, and they were specifically told they couldn’t repossess the car.
Five days after Guru received the letter, Hadad began following the victim in a black BMW. When he stopped at a traffic light, Hadad “got out of the black BMW in the middle of the intersection and approached the victim’s Honda, ripping off the paper temporary tag and aggressively yelling at the victim to get out of the car.” Having never met Hadad, the victim did the obvious thing and drove off when the light turned green.
Hadad later caught up with the victim and began threatening him again, this time revealing that he was carrying a Smith & Wesson pistol. Had he picked a different victim, that could have easily been the end of him since, well, this is Florida we’re talking about here. Instead, the victim chose to hand over the keys and let the crazy Gun Man take his car. Again, smart move. You can replace a car, but bodies full of bullets are a lot harder to fix up.
The victim then called the cops who later arrested Hadad who still had the pistol on him. The jury found him guilty on October 8, and he is currently scheduled to be sentenced on January 9. It isn’t clear how much time Hadad faces since we don’t know his criminal history, and interpreting sentencing guidelines is probably best left to someone who actually took the LSAT.
From what I can tell, though, carjacking is a first-degree felony in Florida, and the gun bumps it from a Level 7 to a Level 9 offense. That would bump the mandatory minimum sentence from 21 months to four years. It’s also possible a newer Florida law would bump that mandatory minimum up to 10 years. So even in the incredibly pro-gun state of Florida, Hadad is looking at doing some pretty serious time. Unless DeSantis decides carjacking an immigrant doesn’t count and decides to pardon him, that is.
H/T: CarScoops
