St. Clair County Felon Admits Machine Gun Charge

ST. LOUIS – A convicted felon from Cahokia Heights, Illinois on Thursday admitted being caught with a machine gun at a St. Louis, Missouri hotel.

Henry Miller, 33, pleaded guilty in front of Stephen R. Clark to a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm and possession of a machine gun.

St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department officers were summoned to the hotel on Dec. 9, 2021 after Miller rented a room using a stranger’s credit card information and a mobile phone app, Miller’s plea says. Later in the day, police found Miller in the lobby with a blue satchel next to him that contained a 9mm Glock pistol that had been modified with a device, sometimes referred to as a Glock “switch,” that converted it into a fully automatic weapon. The Glock had a 29-round extended magazine. A 17-round magazine was also in the satchel. A backpack contained 300 grams of marijuana, a digital scale, $2,889 in cash and another conversion device. The conversion device alone, even if not attached to a weapon, is a machine gun under federal law.

Miller later admitted knowing that the Glock had been modified and admitted testing it to see if it worked.

Miller is scheduled to be sentenced June 8. Each charge carries a potential penalty of up to ten years in prison, a $250,000 fine or both.

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated the case.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Szczucinski is prosecuting the case.