REDWOOD CITY – A San Mateo County jury on Friday convicted a 44-year-old San Jose man of kidnapping and carjacking a Lyft driver in July, prosecutors said.
After the victim picked him up in San Jose on July 16, the defendant, Randy Green Jay, pressed a knife to her stomach and ordered her to drive northbound on Highway 101, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors said Jay has mental health problems and repeatedly told the victim he was going to kill her. At one point, he called 911 and told dispatchers the victim was trying to kill him. When they asked him how, he laughed and canceled the call.
Jay then forced the victim to follow a police car off the freeway in San Mateo, and when the vehicle came to a stop, she jumped out and ran, according to the district attorney’s office.
Prosecutors said Jay drove off in the victim’s car. Police found the car hours later in Morgan Hill by pinging the victim’s cellphone, which was still inside the car, and identified Jay as a suspect by tracing his cellphone through the earlier 911 call.
On July 18, Jay stole a friend’s BMW and drove to San Mateo, where he flagged down an officer and explained that he needed to go to jail, according to the district attorney’s office. He was reportedly found with a knife and a small amount of fentanyl.
It took jurors less than two hours to return guilty verdicts on the felony kidnapping and carjacking counts, prosecutors said.
Jay, who remains in custody on $5 million bail, is scheduled to return to court Tuesday for a trial on aggravating factors in the case, as well as a previous felony strike.
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Source: www.mercurynews.com