A downtown St. Louis carjacking that ended with gunfire aimed at an Illinois State Police trooper has resulted in guilty pleas from three Metro East men, prosecutors say. Davon McLorn, 32, Abduelah Jones, 28, and Kasey Richardson, 30, all admitted in federal court to their roles in the Jan. 27, 2024, crime, which began with a man being forcibly removed from his car and ended with gunfire directed at an Illinois State Police trooper and a crash across the Mississippi River in Illinois.
According to firstalert4.com, the trio approached a man sitting in a parked Nissan Sentra near Convention Plaza and North 7th Street. McLorn then smashed the driver’s side window and took the victim out of the car, according to the station, before the group robbed him of his wallet, cellphone and vehicle. RiverBender.com reports the men then spent more than an hour smoking, drinking and joyriding in the stolen car, with plans to eventually deliver it to a chop shop to be sold for parts.
Gunfire on the Illinois Side of the Eads Bridge
The group drove the stolen car across the Eads Bridge into Illinois, where an Illinois State Police trooper attempted to pull them over, the station's report states. Rather than stop, the men fled, and McLorn and the group fired about six shots at the trooper, striking the cruiser, per the same account. The stolen Nissan ultimately crashed, and the trio ran from the car before officers took them into custody, according to the report.
Court records reviewed by riverbender.com identify McLorn as being from Madison County, Illinois, Jones as being from East St. Louis, and Richardson as being from Belleville. McLorn pleaded guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to one count of carjacking and one count of brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, the outlet reports.
Differing Charges, One Sentence Already Handed Down
McLorn and Richardson each pleaded guilty to carjacking and brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, while Jones pleaded guilty to carjacking alone, per firstalert4.com's reporting. Of the three, only Jones has been sentenced so far, receiving a 73-month prison term, the station reports. Richardson and McLorn had not been sentenced as of the report's publication.
The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and Illinois State Police both investigated the case, according to riverbender.com, which also names Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas Lake as the prosecutor handling the matter. The outlet ties the prosecution to Project Safe Neighborhoods, a Department of Justice initiative described as coordinating federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement, prosecutors and public safety partners to combat violent crime.
