St. Louis Man Caught with Gun and Drugs After Chase Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison Publisher: U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Missouri Byline: Robert Patrick Dateline: St. Louis, Missouri Date: 2 April 2024 Subjects: American Government , Crime

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp on Tuesday sentenced a man who was caught after a police chase with a fully automatic Glock handgun and cocaine base to 10 years in prison.

Anthony Wooten, 41, of St. Louis, Missouri, pleaded guilty on Jan. 2, 2024, to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm and admitted being caught with the gun and drugs.

On May 30, 2023, St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department officers initiated a traffic stop of a Hyundai Veloster near the intersection of Goodfellow Boulevard and Natural Bridge Avenue. Wooten initially stopped, but sped away when officers got out to approach him. He drove at high speeds through residential neighborhoods, and at one point drove up on a curb to avoid spike stripes, endangering both residents and officers. Next to the driver’s seat, Wooten had a .40-caliber Glock pistol that was equipped with a conversion device, commonly referred to as a Glock switch, that converted it into a fully automatic weapon. The Glock had an extended magazine loaded with 21 rounds of ammunition and Wooten had a second, drum-style magazine loaded with 41 rounds. He also had more than 20 grams of cocaine base.

The chase ended in the 5900 block of Hamilton Terrace. Wooten ran inside an apartment and refused to come out. He later fled to another unit inside the same building before surrendering.

In a sentencing memo, Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Martin pointed out Wooten’s extensive criminal history, including a 2001 conviction for first-degree assault and armed criminal action after he shot someone six times. He fled from police in 2010 and was caught with a firearm in 2012. In 2017, he escaped from a halfway house and was on supervised release in that case when he fled from police again.

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Martin prosecuted the case.

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

Robert Patrick, Public Affairs Officer, robert.patrick@usdoj.gov.

Updated July 18, 2024