U.S. District Judge Catherine D. Perry on Tuesday sentenced a St. Louis man who escaped the St. Ann, Mo. jail last year to 15 years in prison.
Walter J. Wilson Jr., 39, was convicted by a federal jury in March of an escape charge and a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Wilson was one of three federal detainees who kicked out a window in the jail on July 9, 2021, and then climbed out. They were arrested by the U.S. Marshals the next day.
Wilson was in jail awaiting trial after a Jan. 6, 2021 indictment on the gun charge. On Oct. 22, 2020, officers of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department found a handgun during a traffic stop. Wilson has prior convictions for robbery, assault, and failure to register as a sex offender, court records show.
Another escapee, Jason William Woolbright, 48, of Jefferson County, was sentenced in June to four years and nine months in prison on gun and escape charges. Drug, gun, and escape charges against the third man, Joshua Brown, 32, are still pending.
The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Will Scharf prosecuted the case.
