DOJ Seal

Department of Justice

U.S. Attorney's Office
Southern District of Alabama

For Immediate Release

Thursday, September 19, 2019
Richard W. Moore
, United States Attorney
Contact: Jimmy Davis

Monroeville Man Sentenced to More Than 14 Years for Armed Carjacking

United States Attorney Richard W. Moore of the Southern District of Alabama announced that Marcus Antoine Bivins, 30, of Monroeville, Alabama, was sentenced in federal court on two charges—carjacking and discharging a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.  Bivins pled guilty to the charges in May of 2019. 

According to court documents filed in connection with his guilty plea, Bivins admitted that on January 2, 2018, he and another man were in a GMC Yukon driven by the victim. Bivins was directing the victim where to go, ostensibly to pick up the other man’s truck. Bivins told the victim to drive down a dirt road that Bivins said led to his grandmother’s house, but was in fact a dead end. At the end of the road, Bivins pulled a pistol and pointed it at the victim’s head. The victim heard a click, which was Bivins pulling the trigger. The gun did not fire. The victim tried to escape from the car, and found the doors were locked. The second man tried to put a nylon cooler over the victim’s head, but ultimately the victim escaped the car. As he ran through the woods, the victim heard several shots. The victim found help and reported the incident to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.

The next day, Sheriff’s deputies responded to a wreck involving the GMC Yukon taken from the victim. At the scene of the wreck were Bivins and the other man, who both complained that they needed medical attention. Deputies asked Bivins if he was armed, and Bivins claimed he was not. However, during the process of treating Bivins, medical personnel in the ambulance found a Smith & Wesson .40 caliber pistol between his legs. The other man was interviewed and corroborated the victim’s account of Bivins taking the vehicle at gunpoint and shooting at the victim as he ran away. The second man said he and Bivins used the victim’s Yukon to attempt to burglarize businesses, including by ramming the car into the wall of one business. The man reported he and Bivins had wrecked the Yukon in a confrontation with another subject.

United States District Court Judge William H. Steele imposed a sentence of 177 months imprisonment, consisting of 57 months on the carjacking charge and 120 months on the gun charge, ordering that they run consecutively.  Bivins will serve a term of 5 years on supervised release upon the completion of his sentence, during which he will undergo drug and alcohol abuse treatment and mental health treatment.  Bivins was not ordered to pay a fine, but the judge ordered that he pay the victim of the carjacking $6,425 in restitution.  Bivins was also ordered to pay $100 in special assessments.  Bivins faces pending charges in Monroe County Circuit Court for murder and robbery first degree. 

The case was investigated by the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.  It was prosecuted in the United States Attorney’s Office by Assistant United States Attorney Gloria Bedwell.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Alabama at http://www.justice.gov/usao/als/

 

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Nashville Field Division