New Montreal Canadiens interim head coach Martin St. Louis, left, and general manager Kent Hughes laugh as they speak to reporters in Brossard, Quebec, Thursday, Feb. 10, 2022. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press via AP)
Due to his carjackings, jail break, and the fatal shooting of the De Smet High School football coach, a man from St. Louis was sentenced to 60 years in prison.
ST. LOUIS—On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Ronnie L. White handed down a 60-year prison term to a St. Louis man who was implicated in both fatal and nonfatal carjackings as well as a jail escape.
In 2017, Kurt Wallace, 31, opened fire on the drivers during three distinct carjackings that were orchestrated by Wallace’s co-defendant, Jherrica Dixon, and a dating app. He shot De Smet Jesuit High School football coach Jaz Granderson to death on October 16, 2017, while robbing him of his Jeep Grand Cherokee in St. Louis.
Wallace shot the driver of a 2005 Chevrolet Monte Carlo in the shoulder on September 16, 2017, in the St. Louis 300 block of Walsh Street. While carjacking a Cadillac CTS in the 5800 block of Kennerly Avenue on October 15, 2017.
Wallace was placed under arrest pending trial after being charged in November 2017 by the U.S. District Court located in St. Louis. Wallace broke out of prison on July 15, 2019. Wallace then led authorities on a multi-jurisdictional pursuit that culminated in Wallace’s vehicle wreck, along with fellow prisoner James Flannel.
In September 2023, Wallace entered a guilty plea to four charges of carjacking, two charges of using a firearm while committing a crime, one charge of using a firearm while doing a crime that results in death, and one charge of making an escape.
Wallace is the seventh person found guilty in relation to a string of violent offenses.Dixon, 30, entered a guilty plea to four charges of carjacking, three counts of taking a firearm and brandishing it in furtherance of a violent crime, and one count of taking a firearm and discharging it in furtherance of a violent crime that resulted in death. She acknowledged arranging many meetings with males so that Wallace, her ex-boyfriend, and others could carjack them. She received a 19-year prison sentence in December from Judge White.
In November 2021, Flannel, 43, received a life sentence in prison for the June 25, 2018, carjacking death of Laclede Cab Company driver Boris Iouioukine. On February 20, he is expected to be sentenced for the carjacking and escape.
Floyd Barber, 28, received a 22-year prison sentence in December. He entered a guilty plea to one count of brandishing and discharging a handgun in furtherance of a violent crime, two charges of carjacking, and one count of discharging a firearm in furtherance of a violent crime that resulted in death. He acknowledged being involved in the carjacking of a Kia Optima on September 9, 2017, in St. Louis, as well as the carjacking of Granderson and the deadly drug heist of Ladareace Pool, 26, on October 3, 2017, in the 4700 block of Goodfellow Avenue.
For Pool’s robbery and murder in 2022, Jerell Henderson, 33, was given a 42 ½ year prison sentence by U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey. Larenta Jones, 30, received a 30-year sentence.
Along with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Lincoln County (Mo.) Sheriff’s Department, the Troy (Mo.) Police Department, the Saint Ann (Mo.) Police Department, and the Saint Louis County Police Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration was involved in this investigation.
