Felon Caught Twice with Guns Sentenced to 78 Months in Prison

ST. LOUIS –U.S. District Judge Catherine D. Perry on Tuesday sentenced a man who was caught with guns twice while on supervised release to 78 months in prison.

On May 28, 2022, St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department officers tried to pull over a Nissan Maxima with no front license plate and a rear license plate belonging to a truck when the driver sped away. The vehicle traveled at a high rate of speed in an erratic manner violating traffic signs and causing other vehicles to take evasive action. The driver struck another vehicle before getting on Interstate 70. After exiting at Adelaide Avenue and stopping, Edward A. Crawford got out and ran away. When detectives arrested Crawford, they found a loaded .40-caliber semi-automatic pistol. Crawford said he tried to discard the gun on the interstate but only succeeded in throwing the magazine out.

After he was indicted on one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm, deputy U.S. Marshals arrested him on August 17, 2023, at a home in the 3400 block of Montana Street in St. Louis. They found a loaded 9mm semi-automatic pistol and four individually wrapped baggies containing cocaine base weighing a total of 25.95 grams. Crawford was on supervised release after pleading guilty in 2018 to being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Crawford, 43, pleaded guilty in March.

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and the U.S. Marshals Service investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Christian Goeke 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.