A Memphis man has pleaded guilty to carjacking a local TV news photographer at a South Memphis gas station and will serve a sentence that leans more on rehab than a hard time.
On Wednesday, March 11, 2026, prosecutors said the man accepted an eight-year sentence for the June 2025 carjacking of WREG photographer Mike Suriani. The deal calls for one year in custody followed by seven years of intensive in-patient treatment at Harbor House, a facility identified in court. Suriani was filling up a station vehicle when the suspect confronted him with a gun and forced him out. He was not hurt.
According to WREG, prosecutors outlined the sentencing package in court and emphasized that treatment at Harbor House is a mandatory condition of the plea. Their report notes that the arrangement is designed to blend punishment with rehabilitation instead of opting for a longer stretch of straight prison time. In court, the Harbor House program was described as intensive.
How the carjacking unfolded
Coverage by Action News 5 at the time of the arrest said the carjacking took place at a Mobil station on Third Street in South Memphis while Suriani was topping off the station’s Toyota RAV4. That report said a man walked up with a gun, Suriani dropped his keys and ran, and the gunman took off in the RAV4…