Two men from East St. Louis, Illinois who were already facing federal charges related to a carjacking in 2022 have been accused of more.
Quinn Turner, 21, and Jaylen Mays, 25, pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court Wednesday. Turner is facing four felonies from an April 19 superseding indictment: two carjacking charges and two charges of possession and brandishing of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. Mays is charged with three counts each of carjacking and firearms charges, as well as one count charging him with being a felon in possession of a firearm.
The indictment accuses Mays, aided by others, of stealing a 2015 Chevrolet Malibu on Nov. 5, 2022, while brandishing a firearm. It says Mays and Turner, again aided by others, stole a 2007 Chevrolet Malibu at gunpoint six days later, and a 2017 GMC Terrain two days after that.
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 who pulled up in a Nissan Rogue and the carjacked Malibu, which had been stolen in the downtown business district.
Detectives assigned to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department’s Anti-Crime Task Force utilized spike strips to stop the Malibu, finding Quinn, Mays, and a juvenile that matched the description of one of the armed men inside, the detention 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.
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.
