Eastern District of Missouri

ST. LOUIS – A couple has been indicted and accused of kidnapping a St. Louis woman at gunpoint earlier this month.

Jervonz L. Williams, 48, and Emma M. Cunningham, 32, were each indicted in U.S. District Court Wednesday on one count of attempted kidnapping. Williams also faces one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm and Cunningham faces one count of making a false statement in connection with the purchase of a firearm and one count of transferring a firearm to a convicted felon.

They appeared in court Friday and pleaded not guilty.

The indictment accuses Williams and Cunningham of holding a woman against her will on August 5 for a financial reward. The indictment accuses Williams of possessing a firearm while a convicted felon and Cunningham of providing him a firearm, knowing that he is a felon, and falsifying paperwork while buying a gun.

A motion seeking to have both held in jail until trial says the victim was a property manager who was meeting Cunningham for a final walkthrough of her apartment. The motion alleges that Williams was armed and threatened the life of the victim in an effort to access her financial accounts via her cell phone. The victim was bound with duct tape but managed to free herself and flee.

Charges set forth in an indictment are merely accusations and do not constitute proof of guilt.  Every defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Zachary Bluestone is prosecuting the case.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.

ST. LOUIS – A jury on Friday found a business owner from Farmington, Missouri guilty of all the charges he faced in trial this week, including bank fraud, Clean Air Act violations and threatening witnesses. 

The jury in U.S. District Court in St. Louis convicted Christopher Lee Carroll, 54, of three counts of bank fraud, three counts of making false statements to a financial institution, one count of conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act, 13 violations of the Clean Air Act and two counts of threatening a witness.

A company part owned by Carroll, Whiskey Dix Big Truck Repair LLC, was also found guilty of 16 Clean Air Act violations.

"The jury found Christopher Carroll responsible for nearly $3,000,000 in pandemic relief loan fraud, poisoning the air through Clean Air Act violations and then threatening witnesses to try and cover up his crimes," said U.S. Attorney Sayler A. Fleming. “He lined his pockets with money that was supposed to save jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic. He used more of the loan money to buy land and a fleet of trucks so he could start a trucking company, and then had the emissions control equipment removed to save on fuel costs. We will seek a significant prison sentence for this defendant and his company and any sentence, by law, will include mandatory restitution.”

"Christopher Carroll's company was granted millions of dollars from the PPP program but laid off dozens and dozens of its employees," said Acting Special Agent in Charge Chris Crocker of the FBI St. Louis Division. "To add insult to injury, Carroll wouldn't have even qualified for the funds if it weren't for his employees. We thank the jury for holding Carroll accountable for fleecing the PPP program, which was designed to help people who were out of a job through no fault of their own during the pandemic."

According to evidence and testimony from the trial, Carroll and his partner, George Reed, submitted a false and fraudulent application for a $1.2 million Paycheck Protection Program loan in April of 2020 for the time share exit company they ran, Square One Group LLC. The loan application contained false statements, including that Reed and Carroll’s wives owned the company. Reed and Carroll submitted loan applications in their spouses’ names to conceal Carroll’s status as a paroled felon, which would have precluded his company from receiving PPP funds. 

Carroll did not use the money to pay dozens of employees who were out of work, or keep their health insurance in effect, Assistant U.S. Attorney Gwendolyn Carroll said during closing arguments Friday. Roughly two weeks later, Carroll began buying trucks and land to start a trucking company. Carroll and Reed then applied for loan forgiveness, falsely claiming that they’d spent the money on payroll and other permitted expenses. 

They then sought a second loan of more than $1.6 million. When that loan was approved, Carroll and Reed took a total of $660,000 in “owner draws” from the company, the evidence showed. 

But Carroll didn’t stop with pandemic loan fraud, Gwendolyn Carroll told jurors. He had emissions control equipment designed to reduce pollutants removed from Whiskey Dix’s fleet of diesel trucks. During the resulting investigation, Carroll would later ask one employee to “take the fall,” and told another that he would stop paying for his lawyer if he talked to federal agents. He did follow through on that threat.

Reed, 69, pleaded guilty to bank fraud in September of 2022 and admitted fraudulently applying for, obtaining and using the two PPP loans. He admitted that the company failed to pay a “significant number” of employees, despite their receipt of the loans that would have allowed them to do so. His plea also says Carroll terminated the health insurance benefits of at least 17 employees. 

The FBI and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Gwendolyn Carroll and Kyle Bateman are prosecuting the case. 

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp on Thursday sentenced a felon caught with fentanyl and methamphetamine and twice with guns to 86 months in prison.

Davion Dixon, of Ferguson, Missouri, and others were in a stolen BMW on Oct. 31, 2022, when the vehicle crashed in Richmond Heights, Missouri after a shooting. Dixon had an AR-style pistol, which he discarded as he fled from the crash. He was arrested in a nearby backyard.

Dixon was arrested again on March 23, 2023, this time by the St. Louis County Police Department on a warrant from St. Louis County Circuit Court. Officers spotted Dixon with an AR-style pistol before the arrest, and found the gun inside his home, along with a 60-round magazine and an “auto sear” that would have made the gun fully automatic if installed. The auto sear, even if it has not been attached to a firearm, is defined as a machine gun under federal law. Officers also found 16.67 grams of meth, 56 capsules containing fentanyl and 2.078 grams of cocaine base. 

Dixon, now 22, pleaded guilty in May to five felonies: possession with the intent to distribute fentanyl, possession with the intent to distribute methamphetamine, being a felon in possession of a machine gun and two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm. 

The St. Louis County Police Department, the Richmond Heights Police Department and the FBI investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Szczucinski prosecuted the case. 

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.

CAPE GIRARDEAU – Four people, including one felon, have admitted involvement in the illegal sale of firearms, including guns that were later found at crime scenes. 

Terry Lee Allen, 38, pleaded guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Cape Girardeau to one count of unlicensed firearms dealing.

On Nov. 19, 2021, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents identified Allen as someone who repeatedly bought multiple firearms from licensed dealers. He was the last known purchaser of seven guns linked to crime scenes in several states, his plea says. Six of the seven guns and 38 of the firearms Allen bought between June 24, 2018, and June 6, 2021, came from Bull Run Weaponry in Marble Hill, Missouri. Bull Run owner William Henry Otto did not report Allen’s suspicious conduct to the ATF.

Undercover ATF special agents bought firearms from Allen twice: two Glock pistols on Dec. 2, 2021, and a Pioneer Arms Corp. “Hellpup” AK-style pistol and two Glock pistols on Dec. 14, 2021. Allen had purchased all the pistols from Otto. Otto falsely reported two of the Glocks had been sold five days after Allen sold them to the ATF agent, Allen’s plea says.

During a Dec. 21, 2021, court-approved search of Allen’s home, agents found 24 firearms and $55,200 cash. Allen admitted not having a Federal Firearms License (FFL).

Otto’s records show that he sold at least 199 guns to Allen, the vast majority of which Allen illegally sold to others. Allen and Otto also exchanged messages in which they discuss Allen’s illegal firearm sales. 

Otto, 46, pleaded guilty August 22 to aiding and abetting unlicensed firearms dealing and admitted knowingly aiding Allen in his illegal gun sales.

Otto also pleaded guilty in July in a separate case and admitted allowing a convicted felon, Shawn Dennis Stockard, to use his FFL to buy firearms at an auction house in Illinois. Stockard then transported the guns to Missouri and transferred them to his wife via Otto.

In early 2022, ATF agents learned of Stockard’s gun sales, and of his connection to Otto. During a court-approved search of Stockard’s home, they found 215 firearms, thousands of rounds of ammunition and numerous accessories, including high-capacity magazines. The Stockards have also pleaded guilty and await sentencing.

Otto is scheduled to be sentenced November 21. Allen is scheduled to be sentenced November 26.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Willis is prosecuting the case.

CAPE GIRARDEAU – U.S. District Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr. on Tuesday sentenced a Cape Girardeau man who sold pounds of methamphetamine to confidential informants to 12 years in prison.

Dewayne K. Clark, 57, pleaded guilty in May to two counts of distribution of methamphetamine, one count of possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute and one count of possession of fentanyl with intent to distribute.

In the plea, he admitted selling two pounds of meth and 20 fentanyl pills on March 23, 2023, to confidential informants working for investigators in exchange for $8,000 cash. On April 13, 2023, Clark sold two pounds of meth and 40 fentanyl pills for $8,000 to the informants. 

On May 10, during a court-approved search, investigators found over one pound of meth, 978 pills containing fentanyl, 8 grams of cocaine, a stolen Glock pistol, a Smith & Wesson pistol and an AR-15-style pistol in his home. Clark admitted selling meth and said his biggest customer was a woman who bought a pound every other month, the plea agreement says.

A court filing says Clark also sold one pound of meth and 20 fentanyl pills to the informants on March 10, 2023.

The Southeast Missouri Drug Task Force, the Mineral Area Drug Task Force, Homeland Security Investigations, the Cape Girardeau police Department and the Missouri State Highway Patrol investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Julie Hunter prosecuted the case.

ST. LOUIS – A woman from St. Louis County, Missouri on Friday admitted promoting the prostitution of a minor online.

Carrie Little, 44, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to one count of coercion or enticement of a minor. Little’s trial was scheduled to begin Tuesday.

As part of her plea, Little admitted that beginning at least as early as 2018, she recruited women and had others recruit women to engage in prostitution. Among those recruited was a minor female. Little provided the victim with a place to live and placed sexually suggestive and/or explicit photos of the minor that were taken with Little’s phone in online advertisements for commercial sex. Little took calls to arrange sexual encounters and to arrange the price. After the encounters, men paid Little or the victim, who was required to give the majority of the money to Little.

Little is scheduled to be sentenced November 26. The charge carries a penalty of at least 10 years in prison, with a maximum of life. 

The St. Louis County Police Human Trafficking Task Force investigated the case as part of the FBI St. Louis Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force. Crisis Aid International and the International Institute of Saint Louis assisted victims associated with the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Dianna Edwards and Nathan Chapman are prosecuting the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Clark on Tuesday sentenced a man who used his brother’s identity to fraudulently obtain money from the Missouri Medicaid Program to six months of incarceration and six months of house arrest.

Judge Clark also ordered Christopher J. Spencer, 46, to repay $56,173 to Missouri’s Medicaid Program. 

Spencer made false statements from June 2018 to February 2022 in connection with claims for Medicaid-reimbursed personal care assistance services.

“HHS-OIG is dedicated to safeguarding taxpayers and our communities from schemes targeting the Missouri Medicaid Program,” said Linda T. Hanley, Special Agent in Charge at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG). “Our ongoing partnership with the Missouri Medicaid Fraud Control Unit strengthens our collective ability to ensure resources meant for those in need are used appropriately.”

Spencer’s brother, who lived with him at the time, once provided him with personal care services, which can include housekeeping, meals, bathing, grooming and transportation.  After his brother moved out in 2018, Spencer continued to submit, on a near daily basis, time sheets and Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) records falsely claiming that his brother was providing care for him.  Spencer also submitted enrollment paperwork to the Medicaid vendor listing his brother as his personal care attendant and containing his brother’s forged signature. Spencer kept the debit card used by the Missouri Medicaid Program and its vendors to reimburse his brother and spent the fraudulently-obtained payments on bills, rent, groceries, shopping, hotels and other personal expenses. He also used his brother’s name and personal information to obtain loans or advances on reimbursement payments from the Medicaid vendor. 

Spencer pleaded guilty in March to five counts of making false statements relating to health care benefits.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General and the Missouri Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit investigated the case.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Clow prosecuted the case.

CAPE GIRARDEAU – U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp on Tuesday sentenced a man who sold fentanyl to someone who later suffered a fatal overdose to 10 years in prison.

Dylan C. McMikle provided several lines of powdered fentanyl that the 25-year-old victim snorted early on the morning of Dec. 16, 2022. The victim left McMikle’s home at approximately 6 a.m., after buying a capsule containing fentanyl. The victim, who had been struggling with a serious addiction, died of a drug overdose that evening. 

After the victim’s death, investigators found messages between the victim and McMikle about obtaining fentanyl. McMikle consented to a search of his home and officers found a small baggie of fentanyl powder and several fentanyl pills.

McMikle, 22, of Jackson, Missouri, pleaded guilty in February to one felony count of distribution of fentanyl. Another man pleaded guilty last year and admitted buying fentanyl from McMikle.

The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Southeast Missouri Drug Task Force and the Sikeston Department of Public Safety. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jack Koester prosecuted the case.

CAPE GIRARDEAU – U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp on Tuesday sentenced a man who fatally shot someone in Butler County, Missouri to protect a heroin conspiracy to 20 years in prison.

James Odell Johnson pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Cape Girardeau to one count of conspiracy to distribute heroin and one count of conspiracy to possess and discharge a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. He admitted shooting a man in Poplar Bluff at the behest of Shanesha “Nikki” Burns in connection with a heroin distribution conspiracy. The victim’s body was discovered on May 20, 2018.

The heroin conspiracy involving Johnson and Burns began at least as early as 2018, according to their guilty pleas. James Michael Cohen and others would transport heroin from St. Louis, Missouri to Butler County twice a month. Cohen and others would then sell the heroin. Members of the conspiracy used Burns’ home just outside Poplar Bluff to sell and store heroin. Burns also sold heroin. Johnson obtained heroin for his own use and for resale from Cohen and others in half-ounce to ounce quantities. Cohen also supplied firearms to Johnson at various times during the conspiracy. 

Two days before Johnson’s victim’s body was discovered, the Missouri State Highway Patrol learned that heroin was being processed and packaged at Burns’ home. The Southeast Missouri Drug Task Force and the Butler County Sheriff’s Office went to the house and Burns agreed to let them perform a search. They found marijuana, heroin and cocaine base. Burns believed that someone who had just left the home had tipped off police and told Johnson that she wanted him killed. Johnson lured the victim to the home with drugs supplied by Burns and Cohen, and then invited the victim to a rural area to go shooting. When the victims’ gun jammed, Johnson shot him with his own 9mm handgun. Johnson was later arrested with murder weapon.

Cohen was found in the possession of drugs and guns multiple times. On Jan. 28, 2019, police stopped him and digital scales, a 9mm semi-automatic handgun, methamphetamine, heroin and $2,494 in cash. On Oct. 8, 2020, he was caught with another handgun, as well as about 444 grams of meth. On Feb. 23, 2021, Cohen was arrested at a St. Louis hotel with about 468 grams of fentanyl and 778 grams of meth. He had a pistol in his car. 

Burns, now 37, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute heroin and conspiracy to possess a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime and Judge Schelp sentenced her in March to 20 years in prison. Cohen, 37, of St. Louis County, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute heroin. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison in February.

The sentence for Johnson runs consecutive to a 10-year term that he received for a 2018 case in which he shot a Poplar Bluff police detective / Drug Enforcement Administration task force officer in the arm. Johnson received a total of 30 years in prison in that 2018 case.

The Southeast Missouri Drug Task Force, the Poplar Bluff Police Department, the Butler County Sheriff’s Office, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Missouri State Highway Patrol investigated the case. 

This effort is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach. Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at https://www.justice.gov/OCDETF.

CAPE GIRARDEAU – U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp on Tuesday sentenced a man who sold fentanyl to a federal informant to 12 years in prison.

Rodney G. Harris, 45, of Jackson, Missouri, pleaded guilty to distribution of fentanyl and admitted that he sold fentanyl to an individual in Cape Girardeau County twice in 2022. Unbeknownst to Harris at the time, the individual purchasing the fentanyl was working as an informant for law enforcement officials. According to court documents, Harris has multiple felony convictions, including several convictions for methamphetamine-trafficking offenses. At the time he sold the fentanyl, Harris was on parole supervision through the State of Missouri stemming from a 2013 conviction for distributing methamphetamine. After serving the 12-year sentence, Harris will be placed on a 3-year term of supervised release.

This case was investigated by the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff’s Office, the Southeast Missouri Drug Task Force and the Drug Enforcement Administration . Assistant United States Attorney Jack Koester handled the prosecution for the Government.

CAPE GIRARDEAU – A former U.S. Postal Service mail carrier who both stole and failed to deliver customers’ mail was sentenced Tuesday to 14 months in prison.

U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp also ordered Robert Gafford, 34, to pay a $5,000 fine and restitution of $1,605.

Gafford of Jackson, Missouri, was convicted by a jury in U.S. District Court in Cape Girardeau in February of one count of delaying or destroying mail and one count of embezzlement of mail.

Gafford worked out of the Cape Girardeau Post Office annex and was responsible for delivering mail on a rural route in or near Scott City, Missouri. In late 2021, the postmaster received complaints from a couple on Gafford’s route that they were not receiving mail and packages, according to evidence and testimony presented at the trial. The couple have Informed Delivery, a Postal Service program that provides pictures of the mail that is scheduled to be delivered that day. The couple sent postal officials images of missing mail. There were days when their mail was not delivered and officials found it at the Post Office and days in which the mail could not be located, according to evidence and trial testimony. When confronted by supervisors and told he must deliver the mail, Gafford said that he did not like the location of the victims’ mailbox, according to court records.  He was also issued a written warning.

Frustrated when their mail was still not being delivered, the couple mailed an Apple AirTag tracking device to themselves and traced it to Gafford’s home after it wasn’t delivered, the trial showed. A special agent with the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General then sent a test piece of mail with a tracking device. Investigators watched as Gafford stopped at his personal vehicle before leaving post office property in his mail vehicle that day. They also independently tracked Gafford’s postal vehicle as he skipped the couple’s mailbox. They tracked the test piece to Gafford’s personal vehicle after he left for the day, then pulled him over and seized the test piece and the couple’s other undelivered mail from his SUV’s glove box, the trial showed.

Gafford’s refusal to deliver the victims’ mail and eventual theft of their mail lasted months, despite postal officials “extraordinary efforts to simply get Gafford to do his job,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Hahn wrote in a sentencing memo. “The victims of Gafford’s months long failure to deliver their mail endured constant apprehension of not receiving their mail, including packages ordered from Amazon, a victim’s operator’s license from the Missouri Department of Revenue, and other mail.”

The memo says Gafford continued to steal mail after the jury’s verdict. In early 2024, the postmaster reported receiving complaints about missing mail from residents on Dalhousie Drive in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, according to the sentencing memo.  The postmaster and the mail carrier for that route placed an AirTag in a package and monitored the package. On April 23, 2024, the package disappeared and the postmaster traced it to Gafford’s home, the memo says. A court-approved search on May 2, 2024, revealed the package, and two Arrow keys, which unlock U.S. Postal Service collection boxes, cluster boxes and other locks, the memo says.

The U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Paul Hahn and Christopher Shelton prosecuted the case.

ST. LOUIS – An indictment has accused a St. Louis County man and an Alabama woman of engaging in an illegal kickback scheme involving genetic and COVID-19 tests given to seniors. 

Willie Ann Cleveland and Timothy C. Peoples were indicted August 7 in U.S. District Court in St. Louis on one count of conspiracy to receive and pay health care kickbacks. Peoples, 56, of Bridgeton, Missouri, appeared in court Friday and pleaded not guilty. Cleveland, 41, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, was arrested August 14 and pleaded not guilty the same day. 

From 2017 through Aug. 7, 2024, Peoples collected biological specimens for genetic and COVID-19 testing, primarily from Medicare patients at senior citizen centers in eastern Missouri, the indictment says. Cleveland introduced Peoples to laboratory personnel so that they could set up the kickback scheme, the indictment says. It says that Peoples and Cleveland created sham contracts to conceal the kickbacks as a “monthly flat marketing fee.”

Cleveland received $9,000 from a laboratory on March 1, 2022, and wired $7,000 to Peoples three days later, according to one allegation in the indictment.

The indictment also says Cleveland and Peoples offered to pay a physician a $100 kickback in exchange for each lab test ordered.

Finally, the indictment accuses both Cleveland and Peoples of lying to federal agents who were investigating.

Charges set forth in an indictment are merely accusations and do not constitute proof of guilt.  Every defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The conspiracy charge is punishable by up to five years in prison, a $250,000 fine or both prison and a fine. 

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Derek Wiseman is prosecuting the case.

ST. LOUIS – A registered sex offender from Lake St. Louis, Missouri on Thursday admitted possessing child pornography.

Timothy Ray Dirck, 53, admitted possessing child sexual abuse material between Nov. 1, 2022, and May 3, 2023.  Dirck was using peer-to-peer software that made that material available for download. On March 20, 2023, a Homeland Security Investigations special agent was able to download child sexual abuse material and traced the computer to Dirck’s address. During a court-approved search of the home, Dirck admitted possessing images and videos containing child pornography on his laptop. The computer was actively downloading and uploading files consistent with child pornography at the time of the search.

Dirck pleaded guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to count of possession of child pornography. He is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 20, 2025. Both sides have agreed to recommend a 10-year prison sentence. 

Homeland Security Investigations, with assistance from the Saint Charles County Police Department and the Lake Saint Louis Police Department investigated the case.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Chapman is prosecuting the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

ST. LOUIS – A Missouri woman on Thursday pleaded guilty and admitted interfering with the housing rights of a St. Louis family. 

U.S. District Judge Rodney W. Sippel then sentenced to Judy Kline, 55, to five years of probation, the maximum term of probation available for the crime. During that time, she must remain in the nursing home where she is currently living and undergoing mental health treatment, or a similar facility. She is also forbidden from contacting the victims or approaching the house where they live. Kline once lived in the home decades ago and mistakenly believed her family still lived there, according to court documents.

Kline admitted as part of her plea that on Jan. 5, 2022, she broke into the victim family’s home while armed with a hammer. She entered the basement, struck the dryer with the hammer and then ran up the stairs towards one of the residents, who was able to close and lock the door before she reached the top of the stairs. Kline left the basement, went to the front of the house and hit the front door and lock with the hammer. She shouted a series of statements demanding that the Hispanic family leave the home. She admitted intimidating or interfering with the family based on their race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or natural origin.

Kline apologized during the hearing and said that she is getting help for her mental illness.

“This plea agreement holds Judy Kline accountable for her actions, while also allowing her to receive the mental health treatment she needs,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Chris Crocker of the FBI St. Louis Division. “We all have a right to live freely and safely in our homes without threats or fear for our safety. FBI St. Louis is committed to protecting all members of our community, including those targeted for who they are.”

The FBI and the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Christine Krug prosecuted the case. 

CAPE GIRARDEAU – A southeast Missouri man on Thursday admitted receiving and possessing child sexual abuse material.

Justin Wade Welker, 40, pleaded guilty in U.S District Court in Cape Girardeau to one count of receipt of child pornography. He admitted receiving and viewing child sex abuse material, including pictures and videos, on his phone. 

The investigation began when the FBI office in Detroit alerted their counterparts in St. Louis that two people were discussing engaging in sex acts with a minor on the Kik messaging and chat app. The FBI had traced one of the participants to Welker’s home in the village of Sedgewickville, in Bollinger County, Missouri. FBI agents approached Welker at work, and he admitted viewing child pornography via Kik.

Welker is scheduled to be sentenced November 12. The charge carries a penalty of five to 20 years in prison.

The FBI and the Bollinger County Sheriff’s Office investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Julie Hunter is prosecuting the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Clark on Thursday sentenced a man from Hawaii to 20 years in prison for the sextortion of a 14-year-old Missouri girl and the distribution of explicit images of other minors.

Gerardo Javier Montes traded child sexual abuse material with others online, including images of his former girlfriends when they were minors and other child victims that he provided with money, gift cards, clothes, sexual toys or electronics in exchange for nude images. Those victims include one girl in Oklahoma, one in Texas and one in Colorado.

Montes made posts and comments in teen-focused Reddit groups, as well as groups discussing depression and rape fantasies. He also admitted seeking child sexual abuse material from other minors online. In February of 2021, he asked someone who said she had been sexually abused as a minor for nude images of herself when she was 13. In December 2021, Montes asked a 12-year-old girl if she wanted to see his genitals and asked to see her nude.

Between Dec. 6, 2021, and Jan. 14, 2022, Montes communicated with the 14-year-old Missouri victim via Reddit. She thought he was 21 but later found out that he was 31. Montes turned their conversations to sexual matters and gave her advice on how to create nude images. He also sent her an explicit image of a 15-year-old that he said was an ex-girlfriend. At one point, she sent him an image of herself in a bra and a picture of herself topless. Montes requested more pictures from the victim. She later told Montes her full name.

On Jan. 13, 2022, the victim tried to cut off contact with Montes. He threatened to post nude photos of her on multiple social media sites and send those images to “every school in the state.” He demanded more pictures, providing a detailed list of what he wanted, and tried to get her to engage in sexual activity with a dog. He also created a fake Reddit account, pretending to be a 15-year-old girl, to try and trick the victim into providing nude images. On Jan. 15, 2022, he sent images of the victim to someone else via Discord.

An investigation began after the FBI received a tip about the sextortion and traced the blackmailer to Hawaii. They performed a court-approved search of his home and seized electronic devices that contained child sexual abuse material. 

“We are not only holding Gerardo Montes accountable for his crimes, we have stopped him in his tracks from exploiting more victims,” said Acting Special Agent in Charger Chris Crocker of the FBI St. Louis Division. “Montes spent significant time hunting and manipulating young girls who were vulnerable to his abuse. Children in our community are safer today with Montes behind bars.”

Montes, 33, pleaded guilty in March to one felony count of distribution of child pornography. 

The FBI investigated the case.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyle Bateman prosecuted the case.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) has detailed information on resources for sextortion victims, including videos and discussion guides to help explain the problem to children and adults. They also have a step-by-step guide on how to report pictures or videos of children to social media companies and flag pictures so that the companies will seek out and remove the images.

To report sextortion, contact local law enforcement or the FBI by calling Call 1-800-CALL-FBI, contacting your local FBI office, or reporting it online at tips.fbi.gov or cybertipline.org.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

CAPE GIRARDEAU – U.S. District Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr. on Thursday sentenced a man who sold methamphetamine to a confidential informant to 10 years in prison.

Adrian L. Lewis, 43, of Charleston, Missouri, pleaded guilty in May to one count of distribution of methamphetamine. He admitted selling two ounces of meth to a confidential informant working for the Southeast Missouri Drug Task Force on Oct. 10, 2023. 

Lewis was deemed a “career offender” due to prior drug offenses.

The Southeast Missouri Drug Task Force investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Julie Hunter is prosecuting the case.

ST. LOUIS – A convicted felon from St. Louis, Missouri on Wednesday admitted committing two arsons in St. Louis in 2022 and being caught with two firearms during the resulting investigation.

Vaely Berry, 52, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to two arson charges and one count of possession of a firearm by a felon. He admitted throwing a gasoline-filled bottle on the roof of a supermarket and grill in the 8300 block of North Broadway in St. Louis on July 15, 2022, igniting a fire.

Berry used two gasoline-filled bottles on Dec. 8, 2022, to set the roof of a liquor store in the 5900 block of Lillian Avenue in St. Louis on fire.

During the investigation of the fires, a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives special agent conducting a court-approved search of Berry’s home found a revolver and a shotgun. Berry admitted knowing that as a convicted felon, he is barred from possessing firearms. 

Berry is scheduled to be sentenced November 13. The arson charges are punishable by five to 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine or both prison and a fine. The firearm charge is punishable bv up to 15 years in prison and the same fine.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department investigated the case.  Assistant U.S. Attorney John Ware is prosecuting the case.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Sarah E. Pitlyk on Wednesday sentenced a contractor from Jefferson County, Missouri to five years of probation, 90 days of house arrest and 80 hours of community service for his role in the financial exploitation of an elderly St. Louis woman. 

Austin James, of Hillsboro, was also ordered to repay $94,606 to the victim’s estate. 

James aided in the crimes of Gino Rives, who the 80-year-old victim hired sometime before Jan. 17, 2021, to repair her roof for $7,500. She next hired Rives, who falsely claimed to be a licensed contractor, to renovate the interior of her home. Rives told the woman to write checks to himself and others, including James, that totaled more than $550,000 for renovations on the one-bedroom, one-bath, 1,100 square-foot home. 

After being contacted by concerned bank employees due to the volume of checks being written on the victims account, the St. Louis City Building Inspector’s Office determined that any work done on the house was worth at most $50,000.

James received eight checks totaling $94,606 between January 2021 and July 2021 for purportedly performing work on the victim’s, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, basement and foundation. Photos presented during the sentencing hearing proved that he did not perform the work for which he had been paid.

James, 27, of Hillsboro, pleaded guilty to one count of identity theft.

Rives, 36, of Edmundson, in St. Louis County, was sentenced in June to 87 months in prison and ordered to repay more than $1 million to elder fraud victims.

The Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General and the U.S. Secret Service investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracy Berry is prosecuting the case.

Anyone with concerns about suspected abuse or neglect of the elderly or disabled should contact Missouri’s Adult Abuse and Neglect Hotline at 800-392-0210.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge John A. Ross on Tuesday sentenced a man who stalked his St. Louis-area ex-girlfriends and sent them child sexual abuse material to 12 years in prison.

Cody Dean Brownlow, 41, sent threatening text and voice messages that included rape threats and files containing child sexual abuse material to an ex-girlfriend and her adult daughter in 2022, his plea agreement says. The victims reported the threats to the FBI. In April of 2023, a court-approved search of Brownlow’s home in Austin, Texas, resulted in the seizure of cell phones and other electronic devices that contained 1,601 images and 19 videos containing child pornography.

Brownlow pleaded guilty in May in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to one count of distribution of child pornography and two counts of stalking. 

During the investigation, two more ex-girlfriends reported that Brownlow had harassed and threatened them and sent them child sexual abuse material, a sentencing memo filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Chapman says. A boyfriend of one of the victims was also sent child pornography.

The FBI and the St. Louis County Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Chapman prosecuted the case. 

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Sarah E. Pitlyk on Tuesday sentenced a former St. Louis County health care company owner to 20 months in prison and fined him $100,000 for submitting more than $3.8 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare, Medicaid and private health care benefit programs. 

Carlos Himpler, now 44, owned or operated a series of health care-related businesses. Himpler’s co-defendant, Dr. Franco Sicuro, owned Advanced Geriatric Management LLC (AGM) in Creve Coeur, Missouri. In the fall of 2014, Himpler and Dr. Sicuro decided to open an in-house testing lab at AGM. They also opened Genotec DX, which they held out as a clinical testing laboratory, and which was in the same building and used the same testing machine as AGM’s lab.

Himpler and Dr. Sicuro sought accreditation for both labs under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA), which set forth quality standards for laboratories. They did not disclose that both labs would employ the same part-time employee who would perform tests using the same machine. To convince CLIA to grant Genotec a final certificate of compliance in November 2015, Himpler participated in causing Genotec to make misrepresentations to CLIA, including that Genotec’s testing hours “changed” so that they no longer overlapped with AGM. The misrepresentations also included claims that AGM stopped lab running samples and transferred its employees to Genotec in July of 2015, and that Genotec did not begin running samples until July of 2015. In reality, the AGM lab continued operating after July 2015 and Genotec started testing months before then.
 
The pair concealed Sicuro’s co-ownership of Genotec from Medicare, Medicaid and private health care insurers, while referring urine specimens from Sicuro’s own practice, AGM, to Genotec.

Himpler and Sicuro and other health care providers at AGM ordered urine toxicology tests for patients and referred those tests to AGM’s lab and Genotec, which in turn sent the samples to outside “reference” laboratories. Both men knew AGM and Genotec did not have the necessary testing equipment to confirm the amount of given toxin in the urine testing to a high degree of certainty, Himpler’s plea says. They then billed health insurers for the testing, despite knowing that Medicare, Medicaid and many private insurers bar “pass-through billing,” or billing for tests performed by others. 

When health insurers became resistant to paying Genotec claims, Himpler and Sicuro in March of 2015 created another laboratory company, Midwest Toxicology Group LLC, for the purpose of billing health insurers. Midwest was a lab in name only and was not authorized to perform tests on human specimens. Himpler and Sicuro never obtained a CLIA certification or any lab equipment for Midwest. In many instances, Himpler caused Genotec and Midwest to each submit claims for the testing of the same specimen obtained from the same person on the same day of service. The pair also falsely used Genotec’s CLIA number on claims submitted under Midwest’s name.

Himpler admitted in his plea agreement that Medicare, Medicaid and private health care insurers paid $1.4 million in pass-through billing and $2.4 million in split billing. 

“Today’s sentencing of Dr. Carlos Himpler demonstrates that HHS-OIG will continue to hold individuals who exploit federal health care programs accountable,” said Linda T. Hanley, Special Agent in Charge with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG). "Health care providers have a responsibility to submit accurate and honest claims to federal health care programs, to ensure that these resources are available for eligible patients.”

Himpler, now of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, pleaded guilty in February in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to a felony conspiracy charge.

Dr. Sicuro pleaded guilty in November 2022 and has satisfied the restitution owed. He also agreed to forfeit $3.1 million in assets.

The FBI and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General investigated the case.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Dorothy McMurtry, Amy Sestric and Kyle Bateman prosecuted the case.  

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Rodney W. Sippel on Tuesday sentenced a man who passed $3,300 in counterfeit money in Missouri stores in 2023 to 20 months in prison.
 
Barry Young, 45, of Memphis, Tenn., traveled to the St. Louis area in February and March of 2023, using between one and four fake $100 bills at a time at various stores to purchase merchandise. Young targeted stores in Arnold, Fenton, Brentwood, St. Louis County and Crestwood. He also victimized a store in Perryville, in southeastern Missouri.

Young pleaded guilty in April to one felony count of passing counterfeit obligations.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Secret Service, the Arnold Police Department, the Fenton Police Department, the Brentwood Police Department, the St. Louis County Police Department, the Crestwood Police Department and the Perryville Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Roy prosecuted the case. 

ST. LOUIS – A man from Springfield, Missouri on Monday admitted being intercepted by police while trying to have sex with a teen from Lincoln County.

Jonathan Mauser-Campbell, 29, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to a felony charge of possession of child pornography. He admitted that on Dec. 2, 2022, he drove from Springfield to Lincoln County, Missouri, to pick up an underage girl from her home. Mauser-Campbell planned to take her to a campground to engage in sex acts with her. 

During a traffic stop, however, officers with the Hawk Point Police Department rescued her after realizing the girl was underage and had run away from home to be with Mauser-Campbell. A later analysis of Mauser-Campbell’s cell phone uncovered over 300 images/videos containing child pornography. 

The Hawk Point Police Department, the FBI and the St. Charles Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Dianna Edwards is prosecuting the case. 

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Sarah E. Pitlyk on Thursday sentenced a man who helped someone fraudulently purchase vehicles using stolen identities to one year in prison and ordered him to pay $89,263 in restitution.

Lavell Caradine, 35, worked at a Florissant car dealership at the time. From June 24, 2019, until Aug. 23, 2019, he sold three vehicles to Naquan Powers, who used the personal information of others to buy and finance the vehicles. Powers texted the victims’ personal information to Caradine ahead of time so Caradine could confirm that Powers could use that information to make the purchase, Caradine’s plea agreement says.

After using the dealership’s system to perform a credit check, Caradine discovered that some victims’ identities were unusable. In one case, the victim was deceased and in other, the person had their credit frozen, a sentencing memo filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane Klocke said. 

With Caradine’s help, Powers bought a Chevrolet Tahoe with a $42,086 loan, a Chevrolet Impala with a $18,098 loan and a BMW 428 with a $29,079 loan. Powers was trying to buy a Dodge Challenger when Caradine texted him a warning that police were at the dealership. 

Caradine pleaded guilty in February to two counts of bank fraud.

Powers, 27, of Hazelwood, is serving a 111-month prison term after pleading guilty and admitting involvement in the vehicle purchases, a credit card scam and pandemic fraud.

The Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane Klocke prosecuted the case.

ST. LOUIS – A St. Louis man on Wednesday admitted fraudulently obtaining $41,484 in loans intended to help struggling businesses during the pandemic.

Robert Baines, 44, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to two felony counts of wire fraud. He admitted fraudulently obtaining Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans in 2021. He also agreed to pay full restitution.

Baines applied for a first draw PPP loan on March 31, 2021, and a second draw PPP loan on April 9, 2021. In the loan applications, Baines falsely claimed that he was self-employed and had earned gross income of $99,563 in 2019. He submitted a forged IRS form with his applications to bolster his claims. Baines was not self-employed and did not earn any of the claimed self-employment income. In his application for the second-draw loan, Baines falsely claimed that he’d suffered at least a 25% reduction in gross income between 2019 and 2020.

The PPP loans were designed to help small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic and, accordingly, were to be used for business-related purposes, such as to cover payroll, utilities, and rent or mortgage payments. Instead, Baines instead used the money for restaurants, travel, clothing and other retail items. 

Baines is scheduled to be sentenced November 12. Wire fraud is punishable by up to 20 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000 or both prison and a fine.

The U.S. Secret Service investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin Ladendorf is prosecuting the case.

ST. LOUIS – A man from Franklin County, Missouri on Wednesday admitted exchanging cash and other items of value for sex with a 14-year-old girl.

Theodore “Ted” John Sartori Sr., 63, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to a felony charge of travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct. He admitted that from the winter of 2013 to the summer of 2016, he provided cash, a car, a motorcycle, Christmas presents and vacations to a friend in exchange for access to the victim, a 14-year-old girl.

As part of his plea, Sartori has also agreed to pay more than $25,000 in restitution to his victim.

Sartori is scheduled to be sentenced November 6. The charge carries a penalty of up to 30 years in prison.

Charges set forth in an indictment are merely accusations and do not constitute proof of guilt.  Every defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty.
 
The case was investigated jointly by the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI, with assistance from the Missouri State Highway Patrol and the Missouri State Technical Assistance Team. Assistant U.S. Attorney Dianna Edwards is prosecuting the case. 

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.

ST. LOUIS – A registered sex offender from Chesterfield on Tuesday pleaded guilty to a felony charge of possession of child pornography.

Charles R. Hamilton, 65, of Chesterfield, admitted possessing 1,288 image files and 185 video files containing child sexual abuse material on his phone. 

The investigation began in May of 2023, when law enforcement officers in Alabama identified a Kik social media account that was being used to distribute child sexual abuse material. They traced the account to Hamilton, a convicted sex offender with an active sex offender registration requirement. When investigators interviewed Hamilton on his front porch on May 25, 2023, he denied possessing any unregistered social media accounts but consented to a search of his phone. That search revealed an email account appearing to match the account associated with the Kik user. Hamilton then admitted using the Kik account but denied using it to distribute child pornography. Investigators later found images of child pornography matching those distributed via the Kik account. A forensic examination found that Defendant had used Kik, Instagram and Telegram accounts to receive and transmit child pornography, Hamilton’s plea agreement says.

Hamilton is scheduled to be sentenced February 13, 2025.

The FBI, the St. Louis County Police Department and the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s State Bureau of Investigation investigated the case.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Hayes is prosecuting the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

ST. LOUIS – A man from Mexico on Tuesday admitted being caught with a firearm and fraudulent identification documents after a road rage incident in St. Charles, Missouri.

Donnovan Mallen, 21, of Berkeley, Missouri, pleaded guilty to illegal entry and unlawful possession of a firearm by an illegal alien. He admitted that on Feb. 26, 2021, the St. Charles Police Department was called to the 1500 block of Beale Street for a “shots fired” call. They found Mallen and a Dodge Charger with a shattered rear window. Mallen, who had a fraudulent Permanent Resident Card and Social Security card, denied any involvement in the incident.  After further investigation by officers, Mallen admitted that while he was driving to work, a vehicle followed him and fired four shots at him. Mallen said he fired once into the air. Police found a loaded 10mm semi-automatic pistol under the front passenger seat.  

At the police station, Mallen admitted buying the pistol for protection from an acquaintance for $750 and the fraudulent identification for $150 to obtain employment, his plea agreement says. There is no record of Mallen lawfully entering the United States, the plea says.

Mallen is scheduled to be sentenced November 5. 

Homeland Security Investigations and the St. Charles Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Christian Goeke is prosecuting the case. 

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.

ST. LOUIS – A Missouri man on Monday admitted stealing firearms and other items from a farm and home store in Potosi, Missouri in 2021. 

Gregory Snyder, 45, of Bismarck, in St. Francois County, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to theft of firearms from a federally licensed firearms dealer and possession of body armor by a violent felon.

He admitted in his guilty plea that he hid in the store on Sept. 19, 2021. He emerged after closing time to steal power tools, camping gear and 13 guns, including eight rifles and five shotguns. Snyder loaded the guns and some of the other stolen goods in his car, and then took them to a river in eastern Washington County. He returned early the next morning for more, but by then, Potosi Police Department officers had spotted evidence of the burglary. They stopped and questioned Snyder, who no longer had the stolen goods in his car. They arrested Snyder later that day. He denied being involved in the burglary but was drinking a Mountain Dew that had been stolen from the store. He was also wearing clothing matching that worn by the burglar and had stolen Kevlar vests in his car. 

Two of the shotguns have been recovered. The other guns are among more than $12,000 in stolen goods that remain missing.

Snyder is scheduled to be sentenced November 6. 

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Potosi Police Department are investigating the case. Assistant U.S. Nino Przulj is prosecuting the case. Anyone with information about the stolen firearms is asked to contact the ATF at 314-768-3120 or online at https://www.atf.gov/contact/atf-tips or the Potosi Police at 573-438-5468.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.

ST. LOUIS – A man from St. Louis County, Missouri on Monday admitted carjacking and robbing two people in St. Louis, Missouri in 2023.

Bradley C. McKinney, 35, pleaded guilty to carjacking, brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence and possession of a machine gun. McKinney admitted as part of his plea agreement that shortly after midnight on July 29, 2023, he and an accomplice were both armed with handguns when they approached two people who had just exited a 2015 Chevy Cruze near the intersection of 16th Street and Lucas Avenue. The robbers rummaged through the victims’ pockets and took the keys to the Cruze and other valuables. McKinney’s associates pulled up in a white GMC Terrain and McKinney got into the Cruze with another accomplice. Both vehicles then sped off. 

After the victims called police, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department’s Real Time Crime Center (RTCC) found footage of the vehicles crossing into Illinois. Investigators identified the GMC Terrain and put out a “wanted” for both vehicles. Later that morning, the Cruze was found abandoned in East St. Louis with the key still in the ignition.

About 25 hours after the carjacking, the RTCC received a license plate recognition hit for the GMC Terrain, and officers used a spike strip to deflate several tires. McKinney was the driver and sole occupant. In plain view beneath the driver seat, officers noticed a black Glock 17 handgun with an extended magazine and an auto-sear, or “switch,” installed, making it a machinegun. McKinney admitted owning the fully automatic Glock, knowing that he was a convicted felon and prohibited from doing so. 

McKinney is scheduled to be sentenced November 6. Both sides have agreed to recommend a sentence of 19 years in prison.

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the East St. Louis Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Zachary Bluestone is prosecuting the case. 

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp on Thursday sentenced a woman who fraudulently obtained $135,622 in pandemic loans for herself and helped others get hundreds of thousands more to 41 months in prison and ordered her to repay the money.

Edna E. McGowan-Baker engaged in a scheme between May 2020 and September 2021 to fraudulently obtain Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, which were intended to aid small businesses in paying and retaining employees during the COVID-19 pandemic.

McGowan-Baker applied for seven PPP loans for five different companies in her name, only two of which were in operation. On the loan applications, McGowan-Baker falsified the companies’ payroll, number of employees and annual income to inflate the amount of PPP loan money she could receive. She also submitted fraudulent tax forms with the applications. McGowan-Baker certified on the applications that she would use the loans for payroll and other authorized expenses but used the money for her own bills and to make personal purchases and payments to others. She also submitted fraudulent applications for PPP loan forgiveness, falsely stating that she used the loans for authorized expenses.

During Thursday’s sentencing hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Clow an an FBI special agent said McGowan-Baker also prepared and submitted fraudulent PPP loan applications for others in exchange for a cut of the loans that they received, taking “advantage of this once-in-a-generation crisis,” Clow said in a sentencing memo.

McGowan-Baker, 48, pleaded guilty in March in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to one count of wire fraud and two counts of bank fraud. She was ordered Thursday to repay $149,194, representing the fraudulent loans she received, interest and loan processing fees.  

The FBI investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Clow is prosecuting the case.

Anyone with information about pandemic fraud should call the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or report via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.

ST. LOUIS – A former alderman in Des Peres, Missouri was sentenced on Thursday to five years of probation and ordered to repay $292,305 that he embezzled from clients.

John Pound, 81, pleaded guilty in March in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to three counts of wire fraud. Pound admitted that from 2010 through June 30, 2020, he embezzled from two clients of his real estate management company, Commercial Realty Management Inc.

Pound’s company provided real estate management services to the owners of a commercial property on North Euclid Avenue in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri. Pound maintained bank accounts and paid bills on behalf of the owners. But he took significantly larger management fees, kept larger commissions and charged higher hourly rates than he was authorized to take. Pound prepared annual budgets which misrepresented the monthly management fee and concealed the inflated fees he was collecting. From 2006 through June 30, 2020, Pound paid himself $220,000 in commission payments that he had not legitimately earned. From Jan. 1, 2015, through Dec. 31, 2019, Pound made about 132 entries in QuickBooks falsely identifying a third-party payee when the money went to Pound.

Pound resigned from his elected position as an alderman in Des Peres, Missouri after his guilty plea. 

The FBI investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gwen Carroll prosecuted the case.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Rodney W. Sippel on Tuesday sentenced a man who set fire to his girlfriend’s apartment after threatening her with a gun to 66 months in prison.

Willie Latimore, 27, of St. Louis, was also ordered to pay $7,087 to the owners of the apartment building. Latimore pleaded guilty to one count of arson and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm. He admitted setting fire to his then-girlfriend’s apartment in St. Louis on May 11, 2023. 

St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department officers were called to the woman’s apartment on Washington Avenue downtown after he began attempting to kick her apartment door down. They arrived to find smoke coming from her apartment. Latimore had piled clothing on her stove and set it on fire. She was hiding at a neighbor’s apartment because he had threatened her earlier in the day with a gun.

St. Louis’ Real Time Crime Center tracked Latimore’s car, and police arrested him later that day after a brief vehicle and foot chase. Latimore dropped a handgun as he ran.

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Finlen prosecuted the case. 

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey on Wednesday sentenced a convicted felon who robbed a pizza delivery driver at gunpoint to nine and one-half years in prison. 

Antione L. Shockley ordered wings and two pizzas and had them delivered to a vacant home in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis on April 13, 2023. When the driver arrived, Shockley stepped out of a gangway and demanded the food at gunpoint. 

On June 24, 2023, Shockley fired a handgun into the air in a school zone. After St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department officers arrived, Shockley gave the gun to a woman, then pulled a stolen Ruger from his waistband and a rifle from inside his pants and dropped them on the ground. After he was arrested and while he was being booked by police, Shockley struck an officer, injuring the officer’s head. 

Shockley is a convicted felon and is thus barred from possessing firearms.

As part of his agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office to resolve all charges, Shockley has pleaded guilty to firearm and resisting arrest charges in St. Louis Circuit Court, where he was sentenced in January to seven years in prison.

Shockley, 26, pleaded guilty in January in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to one robbery charge and one count of possession of a firearm as a convicted felon.

The case was investigated by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Zachary Bluestone prosecuted the case.

ST. LOUIS – A man on Monday admitted committing two carjackings in the St. Louis area a year apart.

Ramon D. Davis, 19, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to two counts of carjacking and two counts of brandishing and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. Davis admitted stealing a Mazda 3 at gunpoint in 2021 and a little over a year later, a Mercedes SUV.

On Nov. 7, 2021, Davis, Montrell Jackson and a juvenile male were walking past an alley when they saw an older man unloading his 2006 Mazda 3 and decided to carjack the man. Davis was armed with a stolen handgun. Jackson was also armed with a handgun. They demanded the victim’s keys, then sped off down the alley.

Hours later, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department’s Real Time Crime Center cameras spotted the stolen Mazda. After a chase involving both St. Louis police and officers from the Hazelwood Police Department, Davis crashed and was arrested after hiding under a semitrailer nearby. Officers recovered two handguns from the stolen car.

On Nov. 11, 2022, Davis and others were in a stolen BMW when they saw a 2017 Mercedes GLS550 SUV parked in front of a CVS on Watson Road in Webster Groves. Davis had a red/burgundy AR-style pistol and confronted an occupant of the Mercedes with it before pushing her to the ground. Davis and one of the others, Tristan T. Davis, then drove off in the stolen SUV. They were arrested four days later. 

Sentencing is scheduled for November 7. The carjacking charges carry a penalty of up to 15 years in prison and the brandishing charges carry a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of seven years consecutive to any other sentence.

Jackson, 20, and Tristan Davis, 20, have pleaded guilty to carjacking and brandishing charges.

The St. Louis County Police Department, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, the FBI, the Webster Groves Police Department and the Hazelwood Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Zachary Bluestone is prosecuting the case. 

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.

ST. LOUIS – A western Missouri man on Monday admitted being caught with nearly three pounds of methamphetamine after a high-speed police chase that started and ended on Interstate 44 in Franklin County. 

Antonio D. Braxton, 49, of Lee’s Summit, Missouri, pleaded guilty to one count of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. He admitted intending to distribute the drug. 

On July 2, 2022, a Franklin County Sheriff’s Deputy pulled over a dark blue Pontiac Trans Am for improperly passing a tractor-trailer. The Trans Am also bore a license plate that was “not on file.” Braxton initially refused to provide his registration and argued with the deputy. When that deputy called for backup, Braxton sped off. He led law enforcement officers on a 23-mile pursuit that involved several major roads and speeds exceeding 100 mph. He eventually stopped on Interstate 44 and was arrested by officers from the Eureka Police Department. When officers approached the car, they saw three cellophane-wrapped packages on the passenger side floorboard. After obtaining a search warrant, investigators recovered the packages, which contained 1.339 kilograms of nearly pure meth.

Braxton is scheduled to be sentenced October 30. The meth distribution charge carries a penalty of ten years to life in prison, a $10 million fine or both prison and a fine.

The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, the Eureka Police Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the St. Louis County Police Department and the Pacific Police Department investigated or assisted with the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Phillip Voss is prosecuting the case. 

ST. LOUIS – A Monroe County, Missouri church official was arrested Friday after having been indicted and accused of participating in a more than $1.2 million pandemic loan fraud scheme.

Kenneth C. Sparks III, 54, was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service in Florida. A grand jury indicted Sparks on July 17 with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, eight counts of wire fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft. 

The indictment says at the time of the allegations, Sparks worked as a visiting minister at Faith Walk Ministry, a church in Paris, Missouri. Harold G. Long was the lead minister and chief executive officer of the church, Mya M. McClain was administrative assistant and Javonte D. Long was a member. Jeffrey C. Oboite lived in Maryland, and operated businesses called Angel's Management Group LLC, Emerald Score LLC and O&S Construction LLC.

Oboite and McClain were indicted on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and seven counts of wire fraud. Harold Long faces one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and two counts of wire fraud. Javonte Long faces one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of wire fraud.

The indictment says Oboite taught Sparks and McClain how to submit fraudulent applications for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans. Oboite and Sparks both submitted or caused to be submitted fraudulent loan applications in their own names, and received at least $200,000, the indictment says. Included among those fraudulently-obtained loans was $147,900 from the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program, the indictment says. The EIDL program was another Small Business Administration program intended to help struggling business owners during the pandemic.

The conspirators also obtained more than $1 million in PPP loans in the names of others, the indictment says. Sparks abused his position of authority as a minister by obtaining the trust of church members, and then obtained their personal and financial information so he could seek loans in their name, the indictment says. Harold Long assured church members that Sparks could be trusted with that information, the indictment says. Sparks also claimed that he was an "Apostle" of God, whose decisions and decrees could not be questioned, it says. Sparks sometimes told church members that they needed to provide their personal and financial information so he and others could fix their credit scores, the indictment says, or that their information would be used to secure funding for the church. Sparks told McClain to create email addresses in the name of church members and told parishioners to open new accounts at a credit union, it says. Sparks also commissioned the creation of false and fraudulent tax documents, the indictment says.

Sparks and Oboite also told McClain and Harold Long to submit fraudulent PPP loan applications for businesses purportedly owned by Long, the indictment says.

When suspicious credit union officials froze some of the parishioners’ accounts, Sparks and Oboite coached church members on the lies they should tell bank officials to free the funds, the indictment says.

Sparks reaped hundreds of thousands of dollars from the scheme, the indictment says, and used the money for luxury vehicles, clothing and merchandise.

Charges set forth in an indictment are merely accusations and do not constitute proof of guilt.  Every defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Wire fraud is punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Each aggravated identity theft count carries a mandatory, consecutive two-year prison sentence.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service and Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Derek Wiseman is prosecuting the case.

“This arrest proves the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s commitment to stopping those who perpetrate mail fraud schemes,” said Acting Inspector in Charge, John Jackman, who leads the United States Postal Inspection Service, St. Louis Field Office. “The Postal Inspection Service and its law enforcement partners will continue to aggressively pursue fraudsters who are driven by greed.”

“We all know the pandemic relief loan programs were created for those whose businesses were negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.  The American public is tired of hearing about fraudsters using the programs to enrich themselves and they want to know that those responsible are being investigated and held accountable,” said IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge Thomas F. Murdock, St. Louis Field Office. “IRS CI is committed to investigating these crimes and doing our part to achieve justice for all victims and taxpayers.”

Anyone with information about pandemic fraud should call the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or report via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.

ST. LOUIS – A man who victimized a nationwide retailer by stealing tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of gift cards was sentenced Thursday to three years in prison.

U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp also ordered Rashad Niles Shahid, 27, to repay $88,269 to the store.

Shahid pleaded guilty in April to one count of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. He admitted using the employee identification number of various store employees in a scheme to add value to store gift cards.  He traveled to the area with others from his home in Michigan to execute the scheme. He targeted stores in Maplewood, Manchester, Florissant, and Shrewsbury, Missouri before he was arrested by the Manchester Police Department.

The U.S. Secret Service, the Manchester Police Department, the Maplewood Police Department, the Shrewsbury Police Department and the Florissant Police Department investigated the case.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Roy prosecuted the case.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp on Thursday sentenced a St. Charles County man caught with child pornography and methamphetamine to 140 months in prison.

The case began when the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a tip that someone had been sharing child sex abuse material via a Kik Messenger account. A detective with the St. Charles County Cyber Crimes Task Force traced the account to Roman Van Stone’s home in O’Fallon, Missouri. A court approved search of the home revealed two handguns and an AR-15 rifle and bags containing a total of 68.5 grams of meth. He also had child pornography on his iPhone. 

Van Stone, now 52, pleaded guilty in April to one count of receipt of child pornography and one count of possession with the intent to distribute methamphetamine.

The FBI and the St. Louis County Police Department Special Investigations Unit investigated the case.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Chapman prosecuted the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey on Wednesday sentenced a felon who fled from police and was caught with a gun after a shooting to nine years in prison.

On June 25, 2022, St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department officers heard gun shots coming from the area of North Garrison Avenue and Magazine Street, in the Jeff-Vander-Lou neighborhood.  Officers also saw a maroon Chevrolet Traverse, which was being driven by Sheltkeem Brown, speed away.  Brown ignored officers’ lights and sirens and continued to drive recklessly until crashing into a parked vehicle at North Sarah Street and Cottage Avenue. He then fled on foot before being caught and arrested. Brown had fentanyl capsules in a plastic baggie in his pocket. Inside the Traverse, which had been stolen, was a loaded.40-caliber semi-automatic pistol with an obliterated serial number. Brown is a convicted felon and is barred from possessing a firearm.

Brown, 31, of University City, Missouri, pleaded guilty in April to a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

The case was investigated by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Goeke is prosecuting the case.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp on Tuesday sentenced a felon who fled from police while armed to 10 years in prison.

Antonio Lenarr Williams, 33, of Ferguson, Missouri, pleaded guilty in April to two felony counts of conspiring to possess a weapon by a felon.

He admitted that on May 5, 2021, St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department officers spotted a vehicle in which Williams was driving heading south on Kingshighway Boulevard. Williams was being sought by police in connection with an investigation. After police deployed spike strips, Williams continued driving on deflated tires in midday traffic. He drove erratically, crossing into oncoming traffic and through red lights while trying to escape from officers. After going through the intersection of Kingshighway and Lindell boulevards, Williams jumped out of the vehicle and ran with a loaded semi-automatic pistol in his hand. He threw the gun in a dumpster shortly before his arrest by police, his plea agreement says. 

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Hayes prosecuted the case. 

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Clark on Tuesday sentenced a St. Louis County, Missouri woman to five years of probation and 18 months of house arrest and ordered her to repay $131,155 for helping her son fake a mental disability for more than 13 years as well as defrauding the Social Security Administration to obtain benefits for herself.

Zella Rives, 57, of Edmundson, bolstered her son’s false claims of disability from 2010 to 2013 by concealing his lies and acting as representative payee for him. Zella Rives fraudulently confirmed Gino Rives’ eligibility in 2019, concealing his ownership of multiple houses and vehicles, his ability to earn income and his relationship with his girlfriend, her plea agreement says. 

Zella Rives pleaded guilty in February to five counts of theft of government funds and one count of making a false statement. 

“Zella Rives held a position of trust for 13 years as a representative payee, which she misused in fraudulently obtaining Supplemental Security Income benefits for her son. She concealed that he was not disabled, and falsely reported about his employment and resources so his benefits would continue,” said Elena Torres Burfield, Special Agent in Charge, Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General, Midwestern Cooperative Disability Investigations Division. “This sentence demonstrates that her criminal actions are punishable under the law and my office will continue to protect SSA’s disability programs for those who are truly eligible to receive them. I thank the U.S. Secret Service for their work in this investigation and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for prosecuting this case.”

In June, Judge Clark sentenced Gino Rives, 36, of Edmundson, to 87 months in prison for the disability fraud case and a separate case involving his financial exploitation of two elderly women. Gino Rives obtained four vehicles and checks totaling more than $855,000 from one woman and used her debit card for personal purchases for himself and his family. He executed a quit claim deed and transferred a house belonging to the other victim into his name before.

The Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General and the U.S. Secret Service investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracy Berry prosecuted the case.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey on Tuesday sentenced a former Defense Department contractor from St. Charles County, Missouri to five years of probation and fined him $50,000 for illegally obtaining parts for the military overseas.

David Murar, 73, has already repaid $166,710.

Murar undercut domestic suppliers by obtaining parts from China and other foreign countries. He violated the law by providing diagrams of necessary parts and other “military critical technical data,” which was restricted and protected information, to foreign individuals and/or entities to obtain those parts. He did so despite signing agreements not to provide access to that data to anyone other than his employees or other eligible persons and comply with U.S. export control laws and regulations. He also agreed to comply with laws and other restrictions requiring certain items purchased by the Defense Department to be domestically sourced.

The parts were sent to his home. Murar then discarded their original packaging and repackaged them to conceal their origin overseas, his plea says.

Murar also fraudulently used his wife’s name to gain a competitive advantage for one of his companies by claiming it was a woman-owned small business, when he was really the actual owner and operator. 

From roughly April through October of 2022, Murar bid on and received at least nine U.S. government contracts by way of fraudulent misrepresentations. Murar fraudulently obtained contracts worth at least $333,465 for parts including nuts, bolts, washers, sleeves, and tools. Murar owned three businesses: Midwest Metals, St. Louis Loft Metals, and Florence Metals. 

In a statement read to the court, the Defense Logistics Agency said it must now obtain replacements from responsible contractors while the military services wait for parts to support their weapon systems.  “It is, of course, always possible that the non-conforming parts make their way into weapon systems before DLA can identify them, which may affect safety and military readiness,” the statement said. The agency said it does “not believe there is a way to quantify the harm, but the impacts to national security are nonetheless tangible and real.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Cort VanOstran said in court that Murar’s crime “risked potential for danger to the United States Armed Forces.” 

Murar pleaded guilty in February in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to one felony count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He had already been suspended from government contracting.

“Today’s outcome demonstrates the commitment of the U.S. Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), and our partners, to safeguard the DoD supply chain and ensure the safety of the warfighter,” stated Acting Special Agent in Charge Ryan Settle, DCIS Southwest Field Office.  “DCIS will continue to pursue companies who supply substandard products, circumvent export control laws, and fraudulently represent products as U.S. made.  These violations put the warfighter at risk and seriously undermine military readiness and security.”

The General Services Administration Office of Inspector General, the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General's Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the Department of Commerce’s Office of Export Enforcement, the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations, the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division, Fraud Field Office and Homeland Security Investigations investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew Drake and Cort VanOstran prosecuted the case.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Sarah E. Pitlyk on Tuesday sentenced a woman who disposed of evidence in a drug-linked fatal shooting in 2023 to 87 months in prison.

On Aug. 2, 2023, Nichole Cheri Birr was riding in a 2012 Ford Fusion with a man, identified in court documents as “T.W.,” who had a large quantity of drugs. A buyer contacted her via Instagram and arranged to make a drug purchase in the 3100 block of Brantner Place in St. Louis. T.W. and the customer, who were both armed, suddenly began exchanging gunfire. Birr fled with the drugs and T.W.’s phone in the Ford. T.W. was able to tell police before he died that Birr and another man had fled in the car. 

Birr tried to clean out the Ford and dispose of it to impede the investigation into T.W.’s murder. On August 4 she traded it in for a Nissan Altima. The dealer noticed and mentioned damage from shots that had been fired within the vehicle, to which Birr replied with words to the effect of, “You have no idea,” her plea agreement says.

Birr then fled to Florida, where she was arrested 10 days after the shooting. 

Birr, 31, pleaded guilty in April in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to a felony charge of disposal of evidence.

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and the FBI investigated the case.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey on Monday sentenced a man who instigated the fatal robbery of a cab driver in Hazelwood, Missouri in 2022 to 30 years in prison. 

Tywon Harris, now 21, was one of four teens involved in the robbery of Dewight Price, 54, on April 24, 2022. All four have pleaded guilty and been sentenced.

On April 24, 2022, after leaving a party in downtown St. Louis, Harris called for a cab. He and the three other teens had walked to a gas station in the 700 block of North Tucker Boulevard. Harris and Trishawn Jones were each armed with a semiautomatic handgun, but Harris gave his to Coron Dees to carry in a cross-body bag.

The four planned to take the taxi to a fake address near Jeremiah Allen’s home, then run away without paying. After learning that they would have to prepay for the ride, they began discussing plans to rob Price.

In court Monday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Dunkel said Harris “took the lead in planning” the robbery, which led to everything that followed.

The teens told Price to drive to Hazelwood Central High School, thinking there would be no witnesses there at that time.  Dees and Jones then robbed Price at gunpoint. After Price handed cash to Jones, Price grabbed a firearm he kept in his door. Allen warned the others that Price had a gun.  

Price began to get out, but Harris opened his door, knocking Price to the ground. Jones saw Price’s gun and fired once, striking Price in the torso. The teens then ran away without aiding Price or calling for help.

Dees, now 21, and Allen, 20, pleaded guilty to a robbery charge. Jones, 20, and Harris pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and abetting in the commission of a murder. 

Dees is serving a 17-year prison sentence. Jones was sentenced to 22 years in prison. Allen was sentenced to 12 ½ years in prison.

The St. Louis County Police Department and the FBI investigated the case.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Dunkel prosecuted the case.

ST. LOUIS – A former St. Louis County, Missouri teacher on Monday admitted possessing child pornography and producing child pornography with hidden cameras. 

Joseph R. Gutowski, 42, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to one count of producing of child pornography and one count of receiving child pornography. 

Gutowski admitted hiding cameras in his office at Lafayette High School in Wildwood and in his home. He secretly filmed minors and traded some of those images with others online, his plea agreement says. He was also a member of an underground child pornography group on Mega, a cloud storage service, and traded videos he’d secretly recorded of an adult in the “Club Creep” group on Mega. 

Gutowski tried to delete child sexual abuse material from nearly all of his electronic devices before they were seized by law enforcement, his plea says. He deleted 25,377 files from his Dropbox account alone. 

Gutowski is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 23, 2024. The production charge carries a potential penalty of 15 to 30 years in prison and the receiving charge carries a potential penalty of five to 20 years in prison.

The FBI and the St. Louis County Police Department Special Investigations Unit investigated the case.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Jillian Anderson is prosecuting the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey on Wednesday sentenced a Warren County, Missouri man who possessed child sexual abuse material on phones and a laptop to 96 months in prison. 

Judge Autrey also ordered Jacob D. Beauchamp, 46, to pay $51,000 in restitution to victims who appeared in the images and videos he collected.

Beauchamp admitted possessing 146 images containing child sexual abuse material on his Apple iPhone, about 1,800 on his Samsung phone and numerous images that were running as a screensaver on his laptop. 

Beauchamp, of Wright City, pleaded guilty in April to one count of possession of child pornography. 

The Wright City Police Department and the St. Charles County Cyber Crime Task Force investigated the case.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Jillian Anderson prosecuted the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Ronnie L. White on Wednesday sentenced a man who helped carjack a woman in St. Louis to 96 months in prison. 

Brandon Best, of Cahokia, Illinois, and at least two others drove from East St. Louis to the Soulard neighborhood of St. Louis on the evening of July 11, 2022, to steal cars. Shortly after midnight, a woman walked from a residence to her 2011 Kia Optima. A sedan pulled up, Best got out and ran toward the victim and her car. The victim was able to get in her car and close the door, but Best re-opened the door and either pulled her out or ordered her out as a second carjacker got into the driver’s seat. The second carjacker was armed with a pistol and Best admitted that he knew that fact. 

The victim told investigators that the second carjacker pointed the gun at her and that someone told her not to move and demanded her keys.

About 15 minutes later at a gas station roughly one mile away, St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department officers spotted the stolen Kia. Best and the other carjacker fled in the car to Illinois. The chase ended back in St. Louis, where Best got out near Interstate 44 and Jefferson Avenue and ran across the interstate to try and elude officers. He was arrested behind a home with his 9mm pistol nearby.

Best, 21, pleaded guilty in April to a carjacking charge and a charge of possessing and brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.

These cases were investigated by the FBI and the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Dunkel prosecuted the case.   

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Audrey G. Fleissig on Wednesday sentenced a convicted felon who was caught in someone’s back yard with a silenced pistol to 70 months in prison. 

On Oct. 13, 2022, the St. Charles Police Department responded to a call about a man in the 200 block of Blanche Drive.  A witness told police that the man was in the rear yard of a home and had been waving a firearm in a threatening manner. The officer discovered Christopher Leach in the gated back yard. When the officer drew his gun and identified himself as a police officer, Leach ran away, tossing the gun into a bush. The officer used a Taser on Leach, who initially refused to put his hands behind his back. The officer found the gun, a loaded .22-caliber semi-automatic pistol with a firearm silencer attached to the barrel. Leach is a felon, having been convicted of offenses including stealing, drug possession, unlawful possession of an illegal weapon and distribution of a controlled substance. He was on parole when he was arrested. 

Leach’s sentence will run consecutive to any sentence he receives for pending parole revocation matters in Phelps County Circuit Court.

Leach, 28, of Rolla, Missouri, pleaded guilty in April in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

The St. Charles Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Christian Goeke prosecuted the case.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey on Tuesday sentenced a former youth sports coach to 140 months in prison for trying to have sex with a 13-year-old girl. 

On Sept. 24, 2023, Trevor White sent a text to a 13-year-old girl that he knew. White was 41 at the time. He asked for her photo, and in a series of messages about her clothing and their past interactions, probed for a “positive response” from the victim, his plea agreement says. He ended the conversation by sending her a photo of himself shirtless.

The teen reported the suspicious conversation to her parents, who contacted St. Louis County police. The teen’s parents allowed a detective to use her phone, assume her identity and continue the conversation. Over several days, White became increasingly sexually explicit and sought to arrange a meeting so they could engage in sex. He also requested sexually explicit photos of the “teen” and sent two explicit images to her. 

On September 29, St. Louis County detectives arrived at White’s home to interview him. White admitted participating in the text conversations, admitted asking the teen for a photo of herself engaging in sexually explicit conduct and admitted arranging to pick her up and take her to a park to have sex with her. 

White, of Fenton, Missouri, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis in April to attempted coercion and enticement of a minor. 

In a letter to the court, the teens’ parents said White obtained the teen’s contact information when he bought items for a fundraiser. “Within hours of that exchange, he had already begun to contact her via text message in ways that were inappropriate, predatory, and grotesque,” they wrote. “As you might imagine, she was very shaken and deeply troubled by this, and continues to be.”

The St. Louis County Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Hayes prosecuted the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.