Eighty-five-year-old Mable Coats says she's surprised to find out that the man who carjacked her was sentenced to 3 years probation and no jail time.
"I would have thought they went to jail," she says.
Last September, Coats was waiting in this SUV as her granddaughter went inside a gas station.
That's when Dontonio Jones and his accomplice got inside and ordered Coats to get out of the vehicle. Both young men took off and were later arrested after a police chase.
In November, a judge reduced the carjacking charge against Jones to unlawful driving away of an automobile.
Twenty-one-year-old Jones plead guilty and just this week, he was sentenced to probation.
Coats' granddaughter, Sonjia, says she's livid by that decision.
"I feel like the Detroit system failed me and my grandmother," she says.
She can't understand why Jones got no jail time, especially when he has a criminal history that includes home invasion and receiving stolen property.
Sonjia says Jones and his accomplice also stole her peace of mind.
"I couldn't sleep last night. It just puts me in a mind of fear," she says.
As for Jones' accomplice Deonte Russell, his sentence wasn't made public, but sources say he too wasn't given any jail time.
We reached out to the Wayne Co. Prosecutor's Office for a comment.
The carjacking of an 85-year-old woman is extremely dangerous conduct. When you consider this, along his other case and his prior record we think the sentence should have included a period of incarceration. The Wayne County Prosecutor's Office, the victim, and her family in the case are disappointed with this sentence. Because the defendant pleaded guilty as charged in both cases ultimately, the judge has the final say in what the sentence will be.
7 Action News also left a message for Judge Shannon Walker for a comment on the decision, but so far, we haven't gotten a call back.
