Show-Me State Times

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Audrey G. Fleissig on Tuesday sentenced a convicted felon who was caught by police with a stolen gun after fleeing from a carjacked vehicle to 97 months in prison.

The sentence for Cedric Cross Sr., 43, consisted of 85 months for being a felon in possession of a firearm and an additional 12 months for violating his supervised release from a prior felon in possession case in U.S. District Court in East St. Louis. In 2017, he was sentenced there to 63 months in prison after being caught with a stolen pistol.

Cross pleaded guilty to the new charge in May, admitting that he was caught with a gun by Saint Louis Metropolitan Police Department officers on Jan. 30, 2022, after jumping out of a carjacked truck. Cross was a passenger and denied involvement in the carjacking.

Judge Fleissig found by a preponderance of the evidence that Cross was also responsible for the non-fatal shooting of his paramour in the Walnut Park West neighborhood of St. Louis the day before the carjacking. Ballistics evidence from the shooting matched the handgun found with Cross the next day.

The case was investigated by the Saint Louis Metropolitan Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Catherine Hoag prosecuted the case.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and communities to reduce violent crime and gun violence, aiming to make neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring results.