Young car thief accused of multiple thefts and a dangerous police chase, is hit with an unusually harsh, 4-year prison sentence

A young, chronic car thief who led a police chase across two states, injuring at least one other driver in multiple crashes, was sentenced to four years in prison Monday in federal court.

Christopher Mulkern, 22, of Stratford had been stealing high-end cars since he was 18. With the exception of the stiff sentences he has been given, the account by prosecutors of Mulkern’s thefts and police pursuits is typical of a wave of thefts that has provoked debate in the courts and the Legislature about youth crime and juvenile justice reform in Connecticut and elsewhere.

The U.S. Attorney’s office said Mulkern, his friends and associates, have engaged for years in what they call “car-checking,” “jigging,” and “jugging” — prowling affluent beach communities, usually, after midnight, for luxury cars in which the owners have left, keys, fobs and valuables.

In some cases, according to information presented in court, Mulkern and other thieves find more cars in a single night than they are able to drive away, so they take the key fobs and plot locations on cellphone map applications in order to return. Once they have the cars, prosecutors said the thieves “sell, trade or pawn” anything of value found in the cars, and then rent or sell the cars to others for use in new crimes.

“The recent explosion of car thefts dominates Connecticut news,” federal prosecutors wrote in a memo describing the phenomenon of youth car theft. “While property theft, in and of itself, is concerning, it is what frequently accompanies the thefts that is truly disturbing: hit-and-run injuries and deaths; homeowners being shot at; high-speed pursuits with police; and gang-related violence using stolen vehicles. These are serious crimes with dangerous and potential deadly outcomes.”

Mulkern was sentenced Monday by U.S. District Judge Kari A. Dooley for interstate transportation of a stolen car and an extraordinary succession of police pursuits that began in Westport on Dec. 1, 2020 and went east to Westerly, R.I. before returning to Bridgeport, where it ended in another theft and two collisions, one of which flipped a passing automobile and injured the driver.

When he was charged with federal crimes for the Dec. 1 offenses, Mulkern was on state probation for an earlier car theft and had five similar or related cases pending against him in Stratford, Westport and Darien. Evidence seized during his arrest with an associate linked him to thefts from Mystic to Wappinger’s Falls, N.Y. According to the prosecution and Mulkern’s lawyer, Cody Guarnieri, he has spent much of the time since turning 18 in jail.

In a memo to the court asking for leniency, Guarnieri said Mulkern began stealing cars and abusing drugs as the result of an horrific childhood; his mother is drug dependent, he was abandoned by his father and watched his stepfather abuse others in his family.

According to court filings, some time in the afternoon of Dec. 1, 2020, Mulkern and associate Edwin Cordero stole a 2018 Porsche Panamera from a driveway in Westport. The owner had left her keys, credit cards, a diamond bracelet and remote control garage door opener in the car. The owner notified the local police department, which broadcast the missing Porsche over a police computer network.

Later in the day, authorities said the two decided to take a ride in the Porsche to the Rhode Island beaches. Shortly after midnight the next morning, a Westerly police officer spotted the Porsche speeding through town but couldn’t catch it. A second officer saw it blowing through stoplights and tried and failed to stop it. The same thing happened across the border in Stonington, where an officer clocked the Porsche at 86 mph on Route 1 before speeding onto a highway on-ramp.

The Porsche showed up in Milford at about 4 a.m., when a police officer said he saw the occupants trying to steal a 2018 Dodge Challenger on Sea Flower Road. The Porsche struck a parked Volkswagen while fleeing.

At 7 p.m., the police in Stratford tried to box-in and stop the Porsche after a traffic camera spotted it on Stratford Avenue. Police said Mulkern, who was driving, escaped by ramming the car in front of him and driving down a sidewalk. They said Mulkern raced through a red light into an intersection, where he struck and rolled over another car, sending the driver to the hospital.

The collision caused the hood of the Porsche to pop up, obscuring Mulkern’s view. The police and prosecutors said Mulkern managed to drive onto I-95, in spite of the damage, and exit in Bridgeport. Federal authorities said Mulkern stopped on Gregory Street, where he and Cordero tried, but failed, to take off in a stolen Audi they had stashed nearby.

“Mr. Mulkern and Mr. Cordero opened the Audi doors with Mr. Mulkern attempting to get into the driver’s seat and Mr. Cordero getting in the front passenger seat,” prosecutors wrote in a memo filed with the court. “Mr. Mulkern grabbed onto the steering wheel and attempted to press the ignition button, however a Stratford officer deployed his department-issued Taser on Mr. Mulkern. Mr. Mulkern was then arrested.”