Felony carjacking charge is filed

The Tuolumne County District Attorney’s Office charged a Sonora man with one felony count of carjacking with use of a deadly weapon in a complaint filed Thursday.

Jesse Daniel Burkett, 19, was arrested in Modesto early Tuesday along with Duston Paul Jacobson, 20, of Columbia, and an unidentified female juvenile after allegedly forcing a 55-year-old woman and her passenger from a white Toyota Matrix at knife point in Sonora and leaving with the car.

The trio was stopped and arrested early Tuesday morning by Modesto police.

As of Thursday, Burkett was still in custody in Modesto, awaiting transfer to the Tuolumne County Jail.

The status of the other two suspects was not known.

Burkett has been arrested numerous times, records show.

When the news of the carjacking broke, the family was saddened, but not surprised, said his grandmother, Karen Burkett, of Jamestown.

“He’s a very very sick man and has been since the age of 4,” Karen Burkett said.

“It’s heartbreaking, the whole thing. The way the victim was victimized and the way the system has treated Jesse.”