A jury in U.S. District Court in St. Louis, Missouri on Friday convicted a man of all charges connected to a series of carjackings and a home invasion in May of 2021.
Jurors deliberated less than two hours before convicting Drew Clark, 37, of three counts of carjacking, three counts of brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, and one count of possession of a stolen firearm.
Clark, of the 4000 block of Pennsylvania Avenue, started by stealing a man’s Jeep Cherokee at Union Station in St. Louis on May 22, 2021, as the victim was unloading the vehicle, according to evidence presented at trial. Inside was the man’s 9mm handgun.
Four days later, Clark committed a series of crimes in less than four hours, often discarding items he’d previously stolen and stealing new clothing, vehicles, and other items.
“This was an absolute rampage,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Finlen told jurors during closing arguments Friday morning.
Just before noon on May 26, 2021, Clark left the first victim’s Jeep near a commercial business in the 3700 block of South 1st Street and stole a white Dodge Ram belonging to the business. One worker tried to block Clark in with his own truck until Clark aimed the stolen handgun at him and forced him to move out of the way.
About 30 minutes later, Clark burglarized a home in the 2700 block of South 13th Street, taking a wallet and debit card, a set of keys and running shoes and leaving behind the Dodge Ram and work boots. He unsuccessfully tried to use the debit card, then tossed it in a dumpster behind a nearby deli.
Shortly thereafter, in the same block, he entered the home of a woman and demanded money at gunpoint. He stole her keys and her Jeep Cherokee, leaving the terrified woman zip-tied in her bathroom.
At roughly 1:30 p.m., he left the Jeep in the 1100 block of South 7th Street, along with a blue jacket he had been wearing. He put on a safety vest and helmet stolen from the woman’s home and walked towards the Purina facility just south of downtown. After wandering around the grounds and buildings and changing into clothing he stole from an employee’s locker, he carjacked a Subaru Impreza from a different employee who was on his way to happy hour.
He left the Subaru in the 1600 block of South 9th Street, leaving behind a Purina vest, temporary contractor badge, and radio in the Subaru.
St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department officers spotted him nearby. Clark fled on foot, running through another victim’s home before officers were able to catch and subdue him. He had the stolen handgun and a backpack containing an unused zip tie, keys from Purina, and items from the Jeep stolen at Union Station: a business card, gift card envelopes, and a charging plug.
At sentencing later this year, Clark faces up to 15 years in prison on the carjacking charges, up to ten years in prison on the stolen gun charge, and seven years to life in prison for each brandishing charge, consecutive to the other charges, for a total of at least 21 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life.
The case was investigated by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police and the FBI. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ryan Finlen and Jennifer Szczucinski are prosecuting the case.
