A Missouri man who triggered a 19-hour standoff with law enforcement in 2022 was convicted Wednesday in U.S. District Court in St. Louis of a gun charge.
The jury found Stephen J. Thorp, 62, of Moberly, guilty of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
According to evidence and testimony presented at trial, members of a U.S. Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force were attempting to arrest Thorp on a warrant issued by the Missouri Board of Probation and Parole. Thorp was on parole after having been convicted of second-degree murder and armed criminal action in Marion County Circuit Court. The warrant was triggered by new charges of resisting arrest in Callaway County, Missouri.
After a member of the Fugitive Task Force learned that Thorp was at another man’s home in Randolph County, near Moberly, members of the task force and the Northern Missouri Drug Task Force went to that home on April 11, 2022. Two occupants exited the house and told officers that Thorp was inside. Thorp ignored loudspeaker announcements to leave. A robot and a K-9 were both unsuccessful in getting him out. After a search warrant was obtained, the Moberly SWAT team sent a drone into the home. Thorp fired three shots while the drone was in the house. The drone later captured video of Thorp with a gun in his hand before he used that gun to disable the drone, evidence and testimony showed. The Moberly SWAT later deployed a chemical agent which forced Thorp out of the house.
The U.S. Marshals Service, the Moberly Police Department, the Randolph County Sheriff’s Department, the Missouri State Highway Patrol, and the Linn County Sheriff’s Office aided in the arrest. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ryan Finlen and Paul Rebar are prosecuting the case.
