A Bloomfield man — who was convicted in November of attempting to murder a Lyft driver and assaulting another passenger before carjacking the vehicle in April of 2019 – has been sentenced to a total of 29 years in State Prison, Union County Prosecutor William A. Daniel announced today.
Union County Superior Court Judge Thomas Isenhour imposed the term on 31-year-old Farrakhan Howard, handing down a 24-year sentence on his carjacking conviction, an 18-year concurrent sentence on the attempted murder and a 5-year consecutive sentence for the aggravated assault on the passenger, this past Friday. Howard must serve at least 85% of the 24-year term on the carjacking before the possibility of parole on that count, then must serve the additional 5-year term before being eligible for release Judge Isenhour ruled.
At approximately 1 a.m. on the morning of Wednesday April 24, 2019, Clark Police Department patrol units responded to the area of Westfield Avenue and found a 47-year-old man bleeding from stab wounds and cuts to his head, face and neck, according to Assistant Prosecutor Izabella Wozniak who prosecuted the case along with Assistant Prosecutor Alexandra Pecora. Soon after, Officers from the Rahway Police Department located a 20-year-old woman who was also suffering from stab wounds to her head and scratches to her neck, Wozniak added.
Testimony presented during the trial revealed that Howard was in the male victim’s Lyft vehicle with the female passenger. At some point during the trip, Howard assaulted and stabbed the female victim. At that point, the Lyft driver stopped the vehicle to help the female and Howard stabbed him several times before carjacking the vehicle. Both victims were able to escape before being located by Clark and Rahway officers. Howard drove off and was eventually arrested and charged after crashing the victim’s vehicle in Woodbridge.