A 28-year-old Washington man who carjacked two delivery men at gunpoint last year, beginning an ordeal that ended when the men jumped from the moving truck, was sentenced to 65 years in prison yesterday by a Howard County judge.

State guidelines recommended a 60- to 90-year term for James C. Eskridge - a sentence his lawyer argued was "out of proportion" to the crime since neither of the victims was injured.

Eskridge, who has four children, pleaded for mercy from Howard Circuit Judge Diane O. Leasure.

"I know the offense I ... was convicted of is a terrible one, but I just pray you give me the opportunity to raise my family," he said.

Leasure likened the Dec. 22 incident to a "reign of terror" and called it "just incredible."

"Because of their bravery and tenacity, [the victims] managed to escape," she said. "This was just a horrific case."

Eskridge was convicted in September of armed carjacking, armed robbery, kidnapping, assault and handgun use. Prosecutor Brendan Clary called the case "simply outrageous."

The delivery men, Juan Carlos Moran and Alberto Cancino-Torres, both of Gaithersburg, had loaded up a rental truck they used to deliver furniture and electronics in the morning and stopped at a Jessup McDonald's to have breakfast with other drivers, according to testimony and court papers.

The delivery men were about to get out of the truck when two men forced their way in. One of the suspects, later identified as Eskridge, waved a revolver and punched Cancino-Torres in the face, according to court papers.

After robbing the delivery men, the suspects forced them into the back of the truck and locked it.

Moran and Cancino-Torres used furniture-moving tools to dismantle a slat at the top of the rolling door, then hooked a leather strap to a piece of metal on the back and swung themselves out of the moving truck, which by then had traveled to Forestville in Prince George's County, according to testimony.

Prince George's County police, using a helicopter, found the stolen truck nearby and caught and arrested Eskridge, who was seen running behind a house in the area. The victims identified him as one of the carjackers.

The second suspect has not been identified.

The crime, Clary said, was "rooted in premeditation and weakness."

"It's perhaps miraculous that [the victims] made it out of the van the way they did," he told Leasure.

Eskridge's lawyer, Warren A. Brown, said a shorter sentence - 10 to 15 years - would be more appropriate than one of more than 60 years. The victims were not hurt, and the gun used was later found to be inoperable, he said.

The crime "was wrong. We need to be protected from it. But let's not make it more than it was," he said.