Two plead guilty in murder, carjacking spree

Calvin Fitzgerald Currica, 22, of Clarksburg will be sentenced in November for two counts of carjacking and one count of second-degree murder, according to records filed in Montgomery County Circuit Court. Sentencing guidelines call for 30 to 51 years in jail.

Harrison Jay Bryant, 21, of Williamsburg, Va., pleaded guilty to robbery with a dangerous weapon in connection with the death of Gerald Lacayo, 22, who was found dead in an Aspen Hill apartment building, according to an online court record database.

Currica, Bryant and Randall Anthony Francis, 20, of New Carrollton, were each indicted earlier this year on first-degree murder and robbery charges in connection with the Feb. 16 stabbing death of Lacayo.

Currica and Bryant were also indicted in connection with two violent carjackings in Germantown and an attempted carjacking in Gaithersburg. They were each indicted on 22 counts, including kidnapping, carjacking, robbery and assault.

Francis' trial is set for the fall.

The four incidents mostly involved victims who were in the wrong place at the wrong time, police have said.

The crime spree began with a carjacking and kidnapping in Germantown on Feb. 11 in which the victim was forced into the back seat of his car and driven to an ATM at a 7-Eleven in Montgomery Village and stabbed in the leg after providing a fake access code for his ATM card.

Next was the stabbing death of Lacayo on Feb. 16, followed by another carjacking and kidnapping in Germantown on Feb. 17 that also involved driving the male victim to an ATM machine for cash. The final incident occurred on Feb. 19 and involved a 22-year-old Gaithersburg woman who was able to fend off the knife-wielding suspects and escape a carjacking attempt in a neighborhood near the Washingtonian Center.

When police arrested Bryant they found the key to the red Saturn that was stolen during the second carjacking, court documents state.

Currica was arrested at the same time.