Jason Handy Sentenced for Taxi Assaults

GLOUCESTER TOWNSHIP, NJ -- A Blackwood man who held up two female cab drivers in knifepoint assaults—stuffing one in the trunk of her own taxi—was sentenced Friday to 23 years in state prison.

Jason Handy, 33, of Willow Cedar Way, must serve 85 of his sentence—more than 19 years—before he’s eligible for parole on the kidnapping and carjacking convictions.

Handy pleaded guilty in October to two assaults on the taxi drivers, one in March 2006 in Gloucester Township and the second in May 2006 in Lindenwold. In the first case, Handy assaulted the driver at knifepoint, bound and gagged her and stuffed her in the trunk of the cab. He then drove to Camden and abandoned the cab with the woman still in the trunk.

Handy tried a similar attack against a second driver two months later. That driver escaped before Handy could stuff her into the trunk.

Both women freed themselves and reported the attacks to police.

Handy went free for three years before DNA evidence pegged him to the assaults. He had to submit DNA in conjunction with a conviction in 2009, and that sample matched evidence collected from the 2006 assaults.

The judge who sentenced Handy, Samuel Natal, has met the defendant in court before. According to state records, Natal previously sentenced Handy to four years in prison for robbery and one year for unlawful taking. Handy was sentenced on those convictions in July 2009 and released in October 2011.