Armed robber sentenced to 20 years

An armed robbery and hijacking in 2019 earned Dijour Ross 20 years in prison after Cobb Superior Court Judge Mary Staley handed down his sentence last week. 

Ross, 21, and an accomplice, Francisco Cruz, held a woman at gunpoint before stealing her car. Cruz previously pleaded guilty to armed robbery and hijacking.

Marietta police responded to a 911 call of a carjacking involving two suspects on Franklin Road in 2019. 

The two men took the police on a high-speed chase. Cruz was eventually apprehended, but Ross fled. He was later caught in North Carolina when authorities served a fugitive arrest warrant. During the sentencing, the victim addressed the court and directed her victim impact statement at Ross saying, “I’m a real estate broker, cancer survivor, and a mother of a teen. That’s who you carjacked and robbed that day. I’ve had to move four times since the incident because I don’t feel safe. You didn’t just take a car; you stole pieces of my life.”