St. Louis County Man Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison for Drug Robbery, Carjacking

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp on Tuesday sentenced a convicted felon who used a machine gun to rob and a carjack the woman selling him drugs to 15 years in prison.

On April 25, 2024, Walter C. Moore, 20, arranged to buy $900 worth of the painkiller Oxycodone from the woman. The seller drove to Moore’s house and invited him to sit in her 2014 Mazda6 to complete the sale. Moore pulled out a handgun, grabbed the Oxycodone pills and ordered the seller out of the car, threatening to shoot her. Moore then sped away.

St. Louis County police located the car near the 1800 block of Chambers Road. Moore ran as police approached, discarding a Glock handgun equipped with a “switch,” or machinegun conversion device, rendering it a fully automatic weapon. It also had an extended magazine and a laser sight. Police quickly located and arrested Moore. Moore had pictures in his phone of himself holding multiple guns. As a convicted felon, he is barred from possessing firearms.

Moore pleaded guilty in February in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm, possession of a machine gun, robbery, carjacking and brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.

The St. Louis County Police Department and the FBI investigated the case.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Zachary Bluestone prosecuted the case.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.