ST. LOUIS – Four young men are facing federal charges in the murder of a cab driver in Hazelwood this past April.
Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri said 18-year-old Trishawn Jones was added to a superseding indictment Wednesday and faces a charge of robbery and aiding and abetting the commission of a murder. Jones was 17 at the time of the crime.
Jones’ cohorts, 19-year-old Tywon Harris, 19-year-old Coron Dees, and 18-year-old Jeremiah Allen, were indicted in June on the same charges. Allen faces an additional charge of being an accessory after the fact.
The indictment accuses all four men in the murder of Dewight Price.
Price was murdered in the overnight hours of Sunday, April 24, 2022.
According to a spokesperson for the St. Louis County Police Department, officers were called to the parking lot of Hazelwood Central High School around 6:30 a.m. that day. They found Price dead on the ground next to his cab. Price was 54.
All four defendants were arrested within the next few days.
Prosecutors allege Harris used a fake name and address to hire a cab to take the group from downtown St. Louis to St. Louis County. During that ride, Harris asked Price to park the cab at Hazelwood Central.
When the cab arrived in the school parking lot, Dees and Jones threatened to shoot Price unless he handed over his cash.
Jones complied with their demands and then attempted to flee from his cab.
Harris opened his backseat door and struck Price, knocking him to the ground. Prosecutors say Jones then got out of the cab and shot and killed Price.
“Violent juvenile criminals are not beyond the reach of the federal criminal justice system,” U.S. Attorney Sayler A. Fleming said. “…I believe prosecuting a violent felony involving a gun under the juvenile system would not provide a range of punishment commensurate with this crime.”
If convicted, the robbery charge carries a maximum 20-year sentence and a $250,000 fine. The aiding and abetting a murder carries a sentence of anywhere from 10 years to life in prison, as well as a $250,000 fine. The accessory charge is punishable by up to 15 years in prison and a $125,000 fine.