Source: Office of United States Attorneys
ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Sarah E. Pitlyk on Monday sentenced a man from Moberly, Missouri who triggered a 19-hour standoff with law enforcement to 10 years in prison.
According to the evidence and testimony presented at the July trial of Stephen J. Thorp, 62, members of a U.S. Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force were attempting to arrest Thorp on a warrant issued by the Missouri Board of Probation and Parole. Thorp was on parole after having been convicted of second-degree murder and armed criminal action in Marion County Circuit Court. The warrant was triggered by new charges of resisting arrest in Callaway County.
After learning that Thorp was at another man’s home in Randolph County, near Moberly, members of the Fugitive Task Force and the Northern Missouri Drug Task Force went there on April 11, 2022. Two occupants exited the house and said Thorp was inside. Thorp ignored loudspeaker announcements to leave. A robot and a K-9 were both unsuccessful in getting him out. After a search warrant was obtained, the Moberly SWAT team sent a drone into the home. Thorp fired three shots while the drone was in the house. The drone later captured video of Thorp with a gun in his hand before he used that gun to disable the drone, evidence and testimony showed. Thorp finally left after a Missouri State Highway Patrol SWAT team deployed a chemical agent.
Jurors in July found Thorp guilty of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
After his release from prison on the second-degree murder charge, Thorp grabbed and threatened his mother in 2018 and led police on a high-speed chase in 2021, prosecutors said in a sentencing memo.
The U.S. Marshals Service, the Moberly Police Department, the Randolph County Sheriff’s Department, the Missouri State Highway Patrol and the Linn County Sheriff’s Office aided in the arrest. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ryan Finlen and Paul Rebar are prosecuting the case.
This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.