U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Clark on Wednesday sentenced a man who carjacked two people in 2021, including a grandmother and her granddaughter, to 28 years and 10 months in prison.
Darius Eubanks, 28, first stole a 2012 Chevrolet Malibu at gunpoint at a north St. Louis grocery store on the afternoon of June 27, 2021. He then unsuccessfully tried to kidnap someone at gunpoint before crashing the stolen vehicle at Labadie Avenue and North Sarah Street in north St. Louis.
Eubanks abandoned that vehicle and walked to a nearby market, where he pistol-whipped a woman who was placing her granddaughter into a 2005 Hyundai Sonata, knocking the woman to the ground. As the woman struggled to get her granddaughter out of the car, Eubanks began driving off.
Less than 30 minutes later, Eubanks was caught by police near his home in the 5000 block of Palm Avenue with a gun and the grandmother’s car keys.
In court Wednesday, the grandmother said she and her granddaughter were traumatized and that she would “never forgive” Eubanks.
Eubanks pleaded guilty in September to two carjacking charges and a charge of brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence.
The case was investigated by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and the FBI.
