A Chula Vista carjacker who was also a purse snatcher has been sentenced to 13 years in state prison after he pleaded guilty to all of the charges.
Probation was denied for Tracy Manuel Southall, 48, a parolee, by Chula Vista Superior Court Judge Kathleen Lewis, who gave him credit for already serving 194 days in jail.
Southall saw a woman changing her toddler’s diaper in a parking lot in Chula Vista on I Street on May 2. He grabbed her car keys and shoved her to the pavement. She got her toddler out of the car before he drove off.
He then drove to San Diego and grabbed a purse from a 78-year-old woman on Euclid Avenue in the parking lot of a grocery store. He pleaded guilty to carjacking, child endangerment, robbery and evading officers.
On his plea form, Southall wrote that he took the vehicle by force and admitted he placed the child in a situation where his health was endangered. He admitted the purse theft and evading San Diego Police officers.
Lewis fined him $3,634. She imposed 10 years for the carjacking alone and he received a consecutive sentence for child endangerment and having a prior felony conviction, according to court records.
He was arrested after an officer saw the stolen car pull into a trolley station parking lot and hit a tree. Southall initially fled, but was soon arrested.
