Charlotte Auto Theft Ring Leader Sentenced to 8 Years for Stealing Over 100 Luxury Vehicles

The fifth member and leader of an organized auto theft ring that stole more than 100 high-end vehicles worth millions of dollars from dealerships located across the United States was sentenced to 97 months in federal prison yesterday, announced Russ Ferguson, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.

Hosea Fernandez Hampton, 27, of Charlotte, was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release after completing his prison term.

Hampton previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transport, possess, and sell stolen vehicles in interstate commerce and possession of a stolen motor vehicle.

“This was a sophisticated car-stealing operation by professional criminals across multiple states,” said U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson. “Hampton now has years behind bars to contemplate whether a life of crime is worth the loss of his freedom.”

Hampton’s four co-defendants also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transport, possess, and sell stolen vehicles in interstate commerce and were previously sentenced as follows:

Dewanne Lamar White was sentenced to 108 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. White also pleaded guilty to possession of a stolen motor vehicle.
Kevin Ja’Coryen James Fields was sentenced to 96 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Fields also pleaded guilty to interstate transportation of a stolen vehicle.
Reginald Eugene Hill was sentenced to 60 months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release.
Garyka Vaughn Bost was sentenced to 12 months and a day in prison followed by two years of supervised release.

According to court documents and court proceedings, from 2021 to 2023, Hampton and his co-defendants engaged in a conspiracy to steal luxury vehicles worth millions of dollars from dealerships in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and Arizona. To maximize profits from the thefts, Hampton and his co-defendants targeted luxury vehicles made by Bentley, BMW, Cadillac, Land Rover, Porsche, and Mercedes-Benz, as well as other expensive models from Chevrolet, Dodge, Ford, and other manufacturers.

Generally, Hampton and the co-defendants visited dealerships posing as customers interested in purchasing vehicles. After pretending to test drive or inspect the vehicles, the defendants would swap the vehicles’ key fobs with similar ones and later use the stolen key fobs to steal the vehicles. Other times, they employed methods like “smash-and-grab” thefts, where they would break into dealerships and locate keys to the high-end models, or break open lockboxes containing keys to luxury vehicles and then drive the vehicles off the lot. On several occasions, the defendants and other co-conspirators stole multiple vehicles simultaneously, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses.

According to court documents and the sentencing hearings, once the stolen vehicles were taken off the dealership lots, the defendants avoided law enforcement detection by removing the GPS navigation and tracking systems from the stolen vehicles, attaching fictitious dealer tags or stolen license plates on the vehicles, and replacing the vehicles’ authentic Vehicle Identification Numbers, among other things. The stolen vehicles were then transported back to Charlotte, where they were sold locally at prices well below market value.

Hampton also frequently possessed and later sold many of the vehicles stolen in the scheme. Adding to the seriousness of the offense, Hampton and his coconspirators drove vehicles recklessly, including by fleeing from law enforcement at high speeds, and possessed firearms. During the scheme, Hampton was stopped in Flagler, Florida, driving a blue 2018 BMW M5 that was stolen from a car dealership in Wilmington, North Carolina. During a search of the vehicle, law enforcement located various key fobs and a Glock 19X firearm under the driver’s seat.

Hampton is in federal custody and will be transferred to the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation to a federal facility.

In making today’s announcement, U.S. Attorney Ferguson thanked Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI, and the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department for their investigation of the case and recognized the contributions of the York County, South Carolina Sheriff’s Office and many other state and local law enforcement partners that assisted with the investigation.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys William Bozin and Daniel Ryan of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte are prosecuting the case.

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