Police had no other major leads after the high-speed chase until the following weekend, when Ridgeland investigators received a video posted to Cervantes' Snapchat story wherein the 17-year-old can be seen ‘bragging’ about the high-speed chase. — Reuters
After robbing partygoers of a Camaro at gunpoint and escaping a police chase through Hardeeville, 17-year-old Jasper County resident Victor Cervantes took to Snapchat to brag about the feat, according to the Ridgeland Police Department.
Cervantes and the 16-year-old boy who accompanied him were charged Monday with carjacking, armed robbery and possession of a weapon during a violent crime, jail records show. A 17-year old charged with a Class A felony is not considered a juvenile under South Carolina law, meaning Cervantes has been charged as an adult. Due to his status as a minor, the 16-year-old has not been publicly identified and will be tried through the Family Court system.
Police arrived just before midnight June 18 at the Jasper County Farmer's Market, where a group of partygoers in the area told them two young men had held the group at gunpoint and stolen a 2018 Camaro SS, said department spokesperson Lt. Daniel Litchfield. The stolen car was worth about US$20,000 and contained an iPhone and US$3,000 dollars in cash, he said.
Minutes after responding officers reported the stolen vehicle to dispatch, Hardeeville police initiated a chase, stopping after the driver crossed the Georgia state line. A trooper from the Georgia State Patrol later found the car abandoned on the side of the road, according to Litchfield.
Police had no other major leads until the following weekend, when Ridgeland investigators received a video posted to Cervantes' Snapchat story wherein the 17-year-old can be seen “bragging” about the high-speed chase. The SC Law Enforcement Division's Fugitive Task Force located Cervantes Monday, taking him to Ridgeland Police's offices, where he confessed to stealing the car and evading Hardeeville officers, Litchfield said. The US$3,000 in cash was not recovered.
Cervantes was in custody at the Jasper County Detention Center as of Wednesday morning, records show.
The June 18 carjacking comes during a summertime surge of vehicle thefts across Beaufort County, police officials say.
Spokesperson Maj. Angela Viens said the Sheriff's Office received 15 reports of car thefts in a month-long period ending June 22, while the Bluffton Police Department reported a rash of stolen vehicles the night of June 20 in the Baynard Park, Woodbridge, Island West and Heritage neighbourhoods, including one that was later found engulfed in flames in Baynard Park, spokesperson Sgt. Bonifacio Perez told The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette. – The Island Packet (Hilton Head Island, S.C.)/Tribune News Service
