On October 7, Andre Whitfield was sentenced to more than 20 years in prison for carjacking two vehicles while armed in 2020.
The 32-year-old St. Louis resident stole a 2004 Pontian Grand Prix at gunpoint, and took a 2010 Toyota Corolla from a woman in her 70s while he held her at gunpoint.
Whitfield sat down with KMOX's Carol Daniel and told her why he did what he did -- and why he apologized in court.
"It just happened, just an in-the-moment thing," he told KMOX. "I really didn't mean no harm, you know, it just happened."
He said he had a rough street life growing up in St. Louis. "Going through juvenile, catching charges after charges, been in trouble in my life." The first time he was charged was at age 13, he said, after robbing someone.
"Just fending for myself," he said. "I wanted to be grown before my time. And you know, we have responsibility with it. And it just happened."
Whitfield said he had positive family members who discouraged him fro doing what he did, but at the end of the day, he still made his own decisions. He said he's owned up to those choices.
"I was wrong for doing what I did. I take full responsibility for doing what I did as a man. And you know, that's why I got 20 and a half years," he said. "I could have gotten more whatever, but I'm blessed with that."
As for his courtroom apology, Whitfield said it was only right to say he was sorry -- he knows he was wrong.
"There's consequences for being wrong. As I got a 20 and a half years for being wrong. But at the end of the day for me to put that behind me, I like to still apologize to them and let them know I'm sorry for it," he said. "You know, at the end of the day I'm paying for it as well. So they should they should be comfortable with it."
One of Whitfield's victims, a 70-year-old woman, did not give a direct comment but her contact at the Department of Justice shared her thoughts with KMOX.
"She does not forgive the defendant for what he did to her, her life is forever changed. She no longer feels safe, she is paranoid and constantly looking over her shoulder. She struggles being in public places, because she is in fear that it could happen again. She does not think Andre Whitfield received a long enough sentence, she wishes he would never see the light of day again. She is however thankful that she lived to see another day; when Mr. Whitfield pulled back his coat and showed her the guns he was hiding, she didn't think she would live to see her family again. In that moment, she knew the best thing to do was just give them the car, because it could be replaced and she couldn't."
He said that he's already looking into ways to better himself as a person over the next two decades, and hopefully work on himself enough to get out before those 20 years are up.
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