ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Audrey G. Fleissig on Wednesday sentenced a convicted felon, who was apprehended in a backyard with a silenced pistol, to 70 months in prison.
On October 13, 2022, the St. Charles Police Department responded to a call regarding a man in the 200 block of Blanche Drive. A witness informed police that the individual was in the rear yard of a home and had been waving a firearm in a threatening manner. Officers discovered Christopher Leach in the gated backyard. When an officer drew his gun and identified himself as law enforcement, Leach fled, discarding the gun into a bush. The officer deployed a Taser on Leach, who initially resisted arrest by refusing to put his hands behind his back. The officer recovered the firearm, which was identified as a loaded .22-caliber semi-automatic pistol with an attached silencer.
Leach has prior felony convictions for offenses including stealing, drug possession, unlawful possession of an illegal weapon, and distribution of a controlled substance. He was on parole at the time of his arrest.
Leach’s sentence will run consecutively to any sentence he receives for pending parole revocation matters in Phelps County Circuit Court.
Leach, 28, from Rolla, Missouri, pleaded guilty in April in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
The case was investigated by the St. Charles Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Christian Goeke prosecuted the case.
This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), an initiative that unites various levels of law enforcement and communities to reduce violent crime and gun violence while making neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy enhancing PSN based on core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy within communities; supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence; setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities; and measuring results.
