Source: Office of United States Attorneys
ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Audrey G. Fleissig on Monday sentenced a St. Louis County man who assaulted his then-girlfriend in 2022 to seven years and five months in prison.
Joshua Lee, 37, pleaded guilty in October to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm. He admitted being caught with a handgun on Aug. 6, 2022, by Saint Louis County Police Department officers who were responding to a report of a domestic incident involving an assault and shooting. The victim had been shot in the back. When Lee was arrested, he told officers that the victim shot herself.
Judge Fleissig on Monday found that evidence and testimony showed that Lee committed an aggravated assault by striking and choking his then-girlfriend before she was shot during a struggle over the gun Lee had in his waistband. Lee is a convicted felon and is barred from possessing a firearm. Judge Fleissig sentenced Lee to seven years in prison for that crime.
Lee was also on supervised release at the time of the assault after pleading guilty in 2016 to being a felon in possession of a firearm. Judge Fleissig on Monday sentenced Lee to five more months in prison for violating his supervised release.
The St. Louis County Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Catherine Hoag is prosecuting the case.