ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey on Wednesday sentenced a St. Louis man who carjacked a woman and stole her phone in 2020 to 11 years and two months in prison.
Mautaveus Ayers, 27, stole a Volkswagen Tiguan at gunpoint on Jan. 16, 2020 from a woman who had just parked at an apartment complex in the 1200 block of Olive Street in St. Louis. Ayers also stole the driver’s cell phone.
About an hour later, St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department officers spotted the stolen SUV in the drive-thru lane of a fast-food restaurant in the 4900 block of Natural Bridge Avenue. Ayers sped off, eventually abandoning the vehicle in East St. Louis and running away with a gun, he admitted in a plea agreement.
Ayers, a convicted felon, pleaded guilty in March to three felonies: carjacking, brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence and being a felon in possession of a firearm. He was on supervised release in a 2013 federal gun case at the time of the crime.
The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer L. Szczucinski prosecuted the case.
