Man sentenced to 30 years in prison for 2010 armed robberies

EAST ST. LOUIS - A North St. Louis man will serve 30 years in federal prison for robbing two convenience stores and shooting a store clerk in 2010. Leslie Woods, 23, was sentenced yesterday in the U.S. District Court to 30 years in prison for his role in the June 17, 2010 armed robbery and shooting that that occurred at the Best Stop convenience store in Cahokia, Illinois and the July 8, 2010 robbery and shooting that occurred at D&D’s MiniMart, also located in Cahokia, Illinois, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, Donald S. Boyce, announced today.

Documents filed in the U.S. District Court establish that on June 17, 2010, Leslie Woods, Derek Marshall, Terrell McGee and James Smith robbed the Best Stop convenience store partially masked and armed with a rifle and two handguns, one of which was a .40 caliber pistol Marshall had stolen during a burglary of a St. Louis gun store earlier in June. Woods, acting as the getaway driver, drove Marshall, McGee and Smith to the store in a car they had stolen during a carjacking in South St. Louis earlier in the day. Woods waited in the car while Marshall, McGee and Smith went into the store, ordered a customer to the ground, pointed a gun to the owner’s head and took over $11,000 from the cash register. As they fled the store, Marshall shot the customer laying on the floor with a .40 caliber pistol and then fired four shots toward a woman sitting in her car parked outside the business. The entire robbery was captured on the store video surveillance.

Five hours after the robbery, the stolen car was recovered in St. Louis County and processed for fingerprints. Two fingerprints were recovered from the door of the gas tank, which were determined to be a match to Leslie Woods.

Approximately a week and a half later, Marshall was found in possession of a .40 caliber handgun during a traffic stop in Brooklyn, Illinois. Testing by the Illinois State Police forensic lab revealed that the gun recovered from Marshall was a match to the .40 caliber fired cartridges recovered by a crime scene investigator from the shooting at Best Stop.
Three weeks later, on July 8, 2010, Leslie Woods, Derek Marshall, Terrell McGee, James Smith and Reshon Farmer robbed D&D’s Minimart partially masked and armed with two rifles and two handguns. Farmer drove Woods, Marshall, McGee and Smith to the store in a minivan they had stolen in North St. Louis earlier that day. Farmer waited in the van while Woods, Marshall, McGee and Smith went into the store and pointed their guns at the two employees behind the counter. While the male clerk was trying to open the register, Woods shot him with a .30/.30 caliber rifle, causing him to fall on top of the female clerk who was lying on the ground. Woods then fired two more shots at both employees. As the two employees laid motionless on the floor, Woods and his co-conspirators took the cash register and a .40 caliber handgun that belonged to the store owner. As a result of the shooting, the male clerk suffered severe injuries and has permanent loss of use of his right arm. The entire robbery was captured on the store video surveillance.

Several police officers from North St. Louis who knew Woods, Marshall, Smith and Farmer viewed the video surveillance of D&D’s MiniMart robbery and identified Marshall, Woods and Smith as three of the gunmen. They also identified Farmer as the getaway driver. During an interview with law enforcement officers, Smith and Farmer confessed to their involvement in the D&D’s MiniMart robbery and identified Marshall, Woods and McGee as the three other gunmen. In 2015, McGee was arrested and interviewed about his involvement in the two robberies. McGee admitted that he was one of the three gunman in the Best Stop robbery. He also admitted that he was one of the four gunmen in the D&D’s MiniMart robbery.
Woods, Marshall and McGee pleaded guilty to all charges in federal court in April 2017.

Marshall and McGee are awaiting sentencing. After completion of the 30-year term of imprisonment, Woods will then serve 3 years of federal supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $727,070 in restitution to the victims and a $600 special assessment. Smith and Farmer were prosecuted for these offenses by the St. Clair County State’s Attorney’s Office.

The case was investigated by the Cahokia Police Department, the St. Louis County Police Department, the Illinois State Police, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Ali Summers, Dan Kapsak, and James Piper, Jr..

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