MIAMI – A federal judge handed down an eight-year sentence to a former car dealer convicted of carjacking a customer near Miami International Airport over a single missed payment.
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A Miami federal jury convicted Erik Hadad, 59, of Aventura, of a federal carjacking charge in October.
Prosecutors said he operated Guru Auto Sales, at 2690 S. State Road 7 in Miramar, with his sons. Google currently lists the dealership as “permanently closed.”
Authorities said the Israeli national victimized a 24-year-old Haitian immigrant who bought a 2020 Honda Accord from Guru in October 2023.
Prosecutors said the victim was never given a copy of the sales paperwork and was not aware that an agreement between Guru and the finance company stipulated that “if he was late on a payment within the first two months of the loan, then the finance company could demand the approximately $13,800 it paid for the loan back from the dealership.”
The victim’s first payment bounced after he set up autopay, investigators said, setting in motion a chain of events that would turn Hadad into a federal inmate.
On Dec. 19, 2023, five days after getting a letter from the company telling Guru to buy back the $13,000, Hadad staked out the victim’s home and, in a BMW, followed him to MIA, where he worked.
Prosecutors said that’s even though the victim “was current on his account that day” and the dealership “was expressly told they couldn’t repossess the car.”
They said when the victim reached a red light at Le Jeune Road and Northwest 31st Street, “Hadad, whom the victim had never met before, got out of the black BMW in the middle of the intersection and approached the victim’s Honda, ripping off the paper temporary tag and aggressively yelling at the victim to get out of the car.”
“The victim was able to get away when the light turned green, but Hadad eventually caught up to the victim” at the MIA Tri-Rail station, authorities said, and Hadad “continued aggressively screaming for the victim to get out of the car,” eventually flashing a holstered gun in his waistband, getting the man to surrender his keys.
The victim, “in shock,” called what was then the Miami-Dade Police Department, whose officers arrested Hadad, initially on state charges, and located the gun.
The case later became federal as the Honda was, according to a federal indictment, “transported, shipped and received in interstate and foreign commerce.”
Hadad could have spent up to 15 years in prison. In addition to his eight-year sentence, Hadad will spend three years on supervised release.
According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Hadad was incarcerated in the Federal Detention Center in downtown Miami as of Monday afternoon.