Two Detroit-area men have been handed down federal prison sentences for their roles in the daring robbery of a St. Louis County jewelry store, resulting in a significant heist of Rolex watches. Kordaryl Cross, 35, has been sentenced to 57 months in prison, while Dajuan Marcellus, 34, received a 37-month sentence back in October. U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey has ordered both men to also pay restitution amounting to $344,300, according to a United States Attorney's Office release.
The duo kicked off their plan on Jan. 10, 2023, when Cross purchased sledgehammers from a Missouri retailer, tools that would soon be used to violently shatter glass cases and make away with luxury timepieces. The following day, Marcellus and at least one other accomplice smashed their way into the Ellisville jewelry store and, in a whirlwind of shattered glass and ticking hands, pilfered the watches while Cross kept vigilant time. The stolen Dodge Ram truck, their vessel in this crime, was later found abandoned in a parking garage; the watches transported to Illinois. This bold plan wasn't their first dance with the criminal justice system—both were on supervised release for separate robbery cases in Michigan at the time of the theft.
Ultimately, Cross and Marcellus pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property in federal court. Their past criminal records only served to magnify their current sentences. The investigation, led by the Ellisville Police Department, culminated in a courtroom where the penalties were laid out by Assistant U.S. Attorney Gwendolyn Carroll, who prosecuted the case.
As the gavel came down, the futures of Cross and Marcellus, once nebulous and unchecked, snapped clearly into focus. The law clamped down decisively to once again attempt to straighten paths wildly divergent from its edicts, as these men prepare to once more interface with the penal system that has come to define so many contours of their lives. They now await transfer to a federal institution to begin serving their latest sentences—another chapter in their storied intersections with the consonance of order and discipline the judicial system seeks to perpetually enforce.
