Two men from East St. Louis, Illinois have been accused of a St. Louis carjacking in November, using a vehicle that had been carjacked a week earlier.
Quinn Turner, 20, and Jaylen Mays, 25, were indicted Wednesday in U.S. District Court in St. Louis on one count of carjacking and one count of possession and brandishing of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. Mays was also indicted on one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
The indictment says they aided and abetted each other and others known and unknown to the grand jury to steal a 2017 GMC Terrain on November 13. On that same date, Mays was in possession of a firearm despite being a convicted felon, the indictment says.
A detention motion says the GMC was stolen from a gas station at the northwest corner of Russell Boulevard and South 7th Street in the Soulard neighborhood by men in a Nissan Rogue and a Chevrolet Malibu.
Three men, including two armed men, rushed the driver of the GMC, ordered him to the ground, and took his wallet and keys. All three vehicles were then driven away.
Detectives assigned to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department’s Anti-Crime Task Force utilized spike strips to stop the Malibu. Quinn, Mays, and a juvenile that matched the description of one of the armed men were inside the car with a Glock .40 caliber semiautomatic pistol, the motion says. The juvenile was in possession of the victim’s wallet and the Malibu had been taken in a carjacking in the downtown business district just a week earlier, the motion says.
The carjacking and felon-in-possession charges carry a potential penalty of up to 15 years in prison. The firearm charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of seven 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 by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Martin is prosecuting the case.
