St. Louis Felon Sentenced to 27 Years in Prison for Gun Crimes (DOJ)

ST. LOUIS - U.S. District Judge Joshua M. Divine on Thursday sentenced a St. Louis felon caught twice with guns, including after a police chase, to a total of 27 years in prison.

After a two-day bench trial in October, Judge Divine found Roosevelt Easley, 40, guilty of two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm. On Thursday, Judge Divine sentenced Easley to 25 years for that case and two more years for violating his supervised release in a 2018 case in which he pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute a mixture of heroin and fentanyl, cocaine base and methamphetamine.

Evidence and testimony at the October trial showed that on March 29, 2022, St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department officers stopped a vehicle driven by Easley. Marijuana and a firearm were in plain view in the vehicle. On Sept. 10, 2022, St. Louis police again attempted to make a traffic stop of Easley's vehicle, but he sped off. He eventually crashed into a tree before running away. Officers found two firearms in the vehicle.

Easley also resisted arrest, threatened police officers, intimidated a potential witness and attempted to bribe a police officer, a sentencing memo filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Donald Boyce says.

Easley has at least three previous convictions for violent felonies or serious drug offenses, which subjected him to the enhanced penalty provisions of the Armed Career Criminal Act.

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Donald Boyce and Nichole Frankenberg prosecuted the case.

This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department's Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces and Project Safe Neighborhood.