Walder Morales helped steal money and an iPhone at gunpoint in Newark in 2012, authorities said.
TRENTON -- A Newark man didn't think about the location tracker installed on the iPhone he stole in a potential carjacking, and consequently he will spend more than six years in prison.
U.S. District Judge Anne Thompson Tuesday sentenced Walder Morales to 78 months in prison for his role in an armed robbery of two people in a car in the early morning hours of Dec. 15, 2012. Following his sentence, he will be subject to supervised release for five years.
According to a criminal complaint, Morales and two other men approached a Chevrolet Equinox with two people in the front seats talking. An associate of Morales, Edwin Ayala, allegedly pointed a gun at the driver and ordered the driver to give him money, a cell phone and keys to the vehicle, it said.
The driver handed over money and the phone, but threw the keys underneath the car.
Morales recovered the keys, the complaint says, and handed them back to Ayala, who threatened to shoot the vehicle's occupants.
After the suspects fled, the victims called police, who activated an application that signaled where the victim's iPhone was.
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Police quickly found Ayala and Morales sitting outside a residence.
Ayala and Morales were among a group of five men charged by prosecutors for participating in a "wave of carjackings in Essex County," U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said in 2013.
Morales signed a plea deal last year admitting to attempted carjacking and one count of using, carrying and possessing a firearm in relation to a crime of violence.
According to the plea agreement, the attempted carjacking charge carries a maximum of 15 years in prison and the firearm charge carries a minimum of five years up to life in prison, which must be served after serving the term on the carjacking charge.
Ayala, who also plead guilty, will be sentenced April 28.
Tim Darragh may be reached at tdarragh@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @timdarragh. Find NJ.com on Facebook.