The sentencing of a former Calvert County resident who was convicted of armed robbery, armed carjacking, assault and other charges at an April trial was recently continued to Nov. 15.
William E. Johnson III, 32, who is now listed as residing in Prince George’s County, robbed and carjacked Matthew Wentz’s 2015 Ford Fiesta at gunpoint on Nov. 5, 2017. Wentz was working as a pizza delivery driver at the time in the Westbury neighborhood of Lexington Park north of Great Mills Road. He told police that he was forced into a woods after stopping to help Johnson and a woman jump start a car battery on a 2012 Kia Soul, according to a previous Southern Maryland News report.
Johnson robbed Wentz of $150 and a cell phone and then drove away in his Fiesta. The Kia, which was abandoned in Westbury, had been stolen in late October 2017, according to the newspaper account.
Johnson’s trial was postponed 15 times. His sentencing was originally scheduled for Sept. 22.
He was also charged with attempted first- and second-degree murder in a case from St. Mary’s County stemming from a Nov. 4, 2017, incident in which he allegedly beat an employee of Medinah Auto Sales in Lexington Park shortly after midnight. Johnson allegedly struck Thomas Cartner eight to 15 times with an object after Cartner yelled at Johnson and another person to leave the property. Cartner was robbed of his wallet and cellphone, according to Southern Maryland News.
The trial in that case was scheduled to be reset on April 12, but is now set for a hearing on Nov. 15. On Sept. 26, senior assistant state’s attorney Dan White said in a text message that the case would be figured out at the November hearing.
Claudette Hope Williams, 56, who was allegedly involved in the Nov. 5, 2017, robbery and carjacking and agreed to testify against Johnson, was found shot dead along with two men in southeastern Washington, D.C., shortly after 1 a.m. on July 7, 2020, according to a previous report in Southern Maryland News. Dale J. Benjamin of Washington, D.C., was charged in that case.
