U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Clark on Wednesday sentenced a convicted felon caught repeatedly with a firearm, including after a standoff with police, to 13 years and nine months in prison.
Stephen Joseph Diani, 49, of St. Louis, Missouri, pleaded guilty in June to two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm and admitted being caught with a gun three times.
On Sept. 8, 2021, St. Louis County Police Department officers were investigating whether the car Diani was driving was stolen because the license plate wasn’t registered to the vehicle. When Diani opened the driver’s door, they spotted a 9mm handgun between the door and the seat and what turned out to be cocaine base and heroin in plastic bags in the car.
On Sept. 23, 2021, Diani was arrested after St. Louis County police responded to calls about someone walking through a neighborhood checking car door handles. After police spotted Diani inside someone else’s SUV, he ran but was caught. In his car, officers found a .223 caliber rifle and tools that had been stolen from a nearby resident’s truck that evening.
In December 2021 and January 2022, police in Shrewsbury and St. Louis were investigating a series of burglaries in St. Louis near the Shrewsbury border and were monitoring Diani’s use of a storage unit in Shrewsbury. They also received a tip that Diani threatened to kill officers or himself rather than go back to jail.
On Jan. 12, 2022, Shrewsbury police spotted Diani’s car at the storage unit, called for backup, and attempted to detain him. Diani tried to close the door of the storage unit but was prevented from doing so by an officer, sparking a 38-minute standoff with police. Diani placed his hand on a handgun if police approached, constructed a makeshift barricade, and repeatedly told police to kill him. Officers successfully negotiated with Diani to allow a man who had responded to an internet ad about tools for sale to leave the unit. As he left, officers leaped the barricade and tackled Diani, who continued to resist officers’ attempts to arrest him.
At least one officer was injured when he jumped the barricade and landed among the stolen tools and equipment in the storage unit.
The Shrewsbury Police Department, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, and the St. Louis County Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Dunkel prosecuted the case.
