A federal judge on Friday sentenced a 25-year-old Anchorage man to 19 years in prison for escaping from a halfway house and carjacking his ex-girlfriend's Hyundai Sonata, which he then used to lead police on a chase on the Glenn Highway that hit 80 miles per hour, according to prosecutors.
Andrea Lavelle Vickers, whose first name is pronounced "Andre," escaped from the Cordova Center, near Third Avenue, in early January. He was finishing a federal prison sentence for a weapons charge, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Alaska's office said in a prepared statement.
Vickers then abducted his 19-year-old ex-girlfriend and her baby inside his ex-girlfriend's car, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors said he threatened to throw the baby out the window and take his ex-girlfriend to the Valley, where he planned to burn her with gas and 72 rolls of toilet paper, which authorities later discovered in the vehicle.
"It was in there when we recovered the car," said Thomas Bradley, an assistant U.S. attorney. "He said he was going to use that to burn her."
Instead, Vickers' ex-girlfriend convinced him to drop off the baby with a friend, who called 911, prosecutors said.
After Anchorage police saw the vehicle, Vickers "fled at high speed" through red lights and drove at 80 to 85 miles per hour on the Glenn Highway before he took an exit at Boniface Parkway.
Then he crashed into another vehicle with two women inside, injuring both of them as well as his ex-girlfriend, prosecutors said.
Anchorage police caught Vickers nearby after a foot pursuit.
Bradley said Vickers was also ordered to pay about $20,000 in restitution and will have three years of supervised release after his prison term.
Prosecutors said Vickers already has a criminal record, including crimes involving weapons and "prior threats to victims." A 2011 Daily News story described police looking for Vickers after he was accused of assaulting his girlfriend.
He still faces state charges related to the January car chase and crash, prosecutors said.
Reach Nathaniel Herz at nherz@adn.com or 257-4311.
By NATHANIEL HERZ