Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

ST. LOUIS — U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp on Wednesday sentenced a felon caught with a gun to 55 months in prison.

Police searched the St. Louis County apartment of Martez D. Lindsey on April 25, 2023, while investigating a fatal hit-and-run. Detectives found a stolen Taurus G3 pistol, .53 grams of cocaine base, .33 grams of methamphetamine, 1.14 grams of marijuana, a digital scale and $1,370 in cash in Lindsey’s bedroom. Lindsey, 31, admitted as part of his plea agreement in December that he knew he’d been convicted of multiple felonies and could not possess a firearm.

After his arrest on the charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm, Lindsey contacted an ex-girlfriend who was a key witness in the hit-and-run investigation and pressured her to claim she was tricked or made up a story because she was mad at him. Lindsey believed her statement was the “only proof they got,” his plea agreement says. Lindsey previously had thrown a brick through the rear window of a vehicle she owned and tossed in a firework that destroyed the front window.

Judge Schelp ordered the federal prison sentence to run concurrent to any prison time Lindsey receives for a pending case in St. Louis Circuit Court, where he faces charges of leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death and unlawful possession of a firearm.

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Zachary Bluestone prosecuted the case.

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