EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. – An East St. Louis man and a St. Louis man were sentenced in federal court on Tuesday for a string of violent carjackings in Missouri and Illinois in summer 2021.

Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Illinois said Jamariante Burgess, 21, and Armon Simpson, 19, admitted to conspiring with others other to commit carjackings between July 12 and Aug. 5, 2021.

According to court documents, Burgess and Simpson pointed guns at and carjacked a person at the Roosevelt Homes public hosing development in East St. Louis.

Weeks later, the pair did the same to a man in St. Louis City’s Soulard neighborhood. Burgess and Simpson were unable to drive the stolen vehicle. They also exchanged gunfire with a good Samaritan who tried to intervene to stop the carjacking.

That same evening, Burgess and Simpson went to downtown St. Louis and robbed three people at gunpoint and stole their vehicle.

Burgess and Simpson drove back across the river to the John DeShields Apartments in East St. Louis. Once there, Simpson pointed to a bystander and misidentified him as a member of a rival gang. Both Simpson and Burgess shot and wounded the bystander. They then discarded the stolen vehicle.

Police in Missouri and Illinois identified and arrested Simpson and Burgess later that morning, and recovered not only firearms, but some of the stolen property.

Simpson was 17 at the time of the crimes, but a federal judge ruled he would stand trial as an adult.

Simpson and Burgess each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit carjacking, one count of carjacking, and one count of use of a dangerous weapon to commit a crime of violence.

Burgess was sentenced to 192 months in federal prison, while Simpson received a 208-month sentence.