Cass County man gets 20 years for Jacksonville vehicle hijacking

Morgan County court sentenced Gabriel Greer, a 36-year-old from Ashland in Cass County, to 20 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicular hijacking tied to a vehicle taken on East Morton in Jacksonville. The sentence was handed down July 15, closing a case that began with a March 2025 hijacking in a public area of the city.

The punishment lands near two decades, making it one of the more serious criminal outcomes to come out of Jacksonville in recent months. For residents who travel East Morton daily, the case is a reminder that violent or high-risk offenses on a city street can lead to long prison terms, not short county sentences.

Greer’s plea resolved the felony case without a trial. By admitting to aggravated vehicular hijacking, he accepted responsibility for the offense that prosecutors tied to the Jacksonville incident. The court’s 20-year term puts him in state prison for a lengthy stretch and removes him from the community for years to come.

The timing shows how long felony cases can take to work through the system. The hijacking happened in March 2025, and the sentence did not come until mid-July 2026. That gap reflects the path from the original offense through charging, plea negotiations and final judgment in Morgan County court.

East Morton sits in the middle of Jacksonville’s everyday traffic pattern, which gives the case added weight for local readers. A hijacking there was not an isolated rural offense but a public safety incident in a busy part of town, where residents, workers and drivers routinely pass through. The 20-year sentence leaves no doubt that the court treated the case as a serious violent crime rather than a routine property offense.