A 16-year-old received a three-year detention sentence on Thursday for the murder of a former U.S. military interpreter during a carjacking attempt in Washington, D.C., in 2023.
D.C. Superior Court Judge Kendra Briggs sentenced the teen to a three-year lockup after prosecutors struck a plea deal with the killer to serve 17 months. Briggs called the murder of Nasrat Ahmad Yar in 2023 a “senseless” act and doubled prosecutors’ request for the teen’s sentence, according to WUSA9.
The killer could have faced a maximum sentence of five years in secure detention if he had elected to go to trial and had been found guilty. D.C. code mandates juvenile felons be released when they turn 21.
Those close to Yar expressed disappointment at the sentence. Even after the judge’s increase, the term does not seem long enough after the teen killed Yar, a 31-year-old father of four.
“In the grand scheme of things what actually would have been justice would have been a sentence that would have been proportionate to him being sentenced to as an adult,” Jeramie Malone, a friend of Yar, said. “I didn’t get the sense that he was actually remorseful.”
The judge emphasized the need for the killer’s “rehabilitation” during the sentencing hearing.
“There is a lot of rehabilitation needed here,” Briggs said, according to The Washington Post.
“You have suffered trauma as a child, but you also made a very bad decision that resulted in the death of a man,” Briggs added. “I would hope that you take advantage of the rehabilitation services and that you come back to the community a better person.”
Yar served as an interpreter for the U.S. Army Special Forces in Afghanistan before he left the country and landed in Pennsylvania. He moved with his family to Alexandria in 2022.
Yar was gunned down in his car while working for the rideshare company Lyft less than a year after moving to Alexandria. Yar, who at the time was the sole provider for his family, had been driving to make money to pay rent when the teen shot him in an attempted carjacking.
“He was so happy he got a new car because he could take care of his family,” Yar’s friend Rahim Amini said after the tragic 2023 incident. “His wife asked him to stay home but he said, ‘I have to pay rent. I don’t have that much money. I have to work.’”
