WASHINGTON – Michael Alan Hines, 36, of Washington, D.C., was ordered to be detained pending trial today, after the Honorable Heide Hermann found probable cause supported the carjacking and armed robbery charges, announced U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves and Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela A. Smith.

           According to the government’s evidence at the preliminary hearing, Hines approached the first victim’s car on March 27, 2024, while she was at the pump of a gas station on Rhode Island Avenue in Northeast Washington, D.C. The defendant first tried to get into her car and, when he found the door locked, he asked the victim for money. She indicated she had none. Due to the victim’s proximity to her car, the doors unlocked automatically, and the defendant got in the driver’s seat. The victim jumped into the passenger seat and tried to stop the defendant, but he began to choke her. While choking the victim, the defendant put the car in reverse and took the victim’s phone from her hands. The victim freed herself and got out of her car. The defendant then abandoned his effort to take the car when he couldn’t drive it.

           An MPD detective responding to that complaint recognized the defendant as the suspect in an armed robbery at the same gas station several days earlier. In that case, the defendant had also walked up to a driver at a gas pump and asked for money before robbing him. The defendant grabbed that victim’s debit card from the pump and, when that victim struggled with the defendant over the card, the defendant threatened the victim with a knife.

           This case is being investigated by the Metropolitan Police Department. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacqueline Yarbro of the Major Crimes Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.

           A complaint is merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.