Hammer AttackĀ Defendants Get Prison
About eight months ago, Ingrid Ellerbe was attacked just outside her apartment by a pair of Farmington residents wielding hammers. 20-year-old Jasmine McReynolds and 18-year-old Joshua Miller, the two who assaulted Ellerbe on that fateful evening, were just sentenced in the Oakland County District Court for the hammer attack. And the sentence is no lightweight. They will be behind bars for a long time.
According to police, McReynolds and Miller ambushed Ellerbe outside her apartment as she was returning home from evening classes at a local college. They hit her repeatedly in the head with a hammer. When she put her hands up to shield her face, the blows broke the bones in her fingers. McReynolds entered her home while Miller held Ellerbe with his hand over her mouth to keep her quiet.
They then dragged her out of the building and into her car, where the pair choked her with a cell phone cord. They put a plastic bag over her head, and then stuffed it into her mouth, hoping to choke her. They told her she had to die.
Ellerbe finally was able to escape the vehicle. A neighbor heard her screaming and rushed to help, calling the police. McReynolds and Miller fled in Ellerbe’s car.
Before the hammer attack, Ellerbe had never laid eyes on McReynolds or Miller before. They were complete strangers to her. Now, in the wake of the attack, she cannot stop thinking about them. In her victim impact statement given at the sentencing, Ellerbe talked about the fear that dogs her every move. Her struggle to move past the incident. And the dents still in her skull from the hammer blows that remind her constantly of the hammer attack.
McReynolds and Miller were apprehended by police two days after the assault, when someone tipped officers to the fact that Ellerbe’s car was being driven around by someone fitting Miller’s description. Officers pulled the car over and Miller and McReynolds fled on foot, before being captured by police.
Both Miller and McReynolds were sentenced onĀ multiple felonies, including Assault with intent to commit murder, Armed robbery, Carjacking, Unlawful imprisonment, Second-degree home invasion and Resisting a police officer.
Circuit Judge Rae Lee Chabot sentenced McReynolds and Miller to anywhere from 18 years, 9 months to 70 years in prison. In addition, Miller was also issued a concurrent sentence of 15 to 60 years, for attempting an identical hammer attack just a few days prior to the one on Ellerbe.