UPS truck robbery nets 235-month prison term

EAST ST. LOUIS – Anthony T. Moore has been sentenced to 235 months in federal prison for the armed robbery of a UPS truck on Dec. 17, 2012. Moore was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in East St. Louis.

Moore’s federal sentence of nearly 20 years will be consecutive to a 34-year state sentence he received for attempted murder.

Moore, 22, was found guilty of the federal armed robbery charge on June 11, 2014, following a three-day jury trial.

According to evidence presented at trial, Moore hijacked a UPS truck in East St. Louis at gunpoint and forced the driver to move the truck to a deserted dead-end street in Washington Park, Illinois. Moore and two accomplices then stole the packages which were inside the truck.

At trial, the UPS driver testified that “I thought it was the last day of my life, and that I would never see my kids again. I just asked the Lord to receive my soul. I was that sure he was going to kill me.”

After the robbery, Moore shot a 15-year-old acquaintance in the back of the head, because Moore believed the juvenile could implicate him in the UPS truck robbery. Moore was convicted last year in St. Clair County Circuit Court for that shooting.

At Moore’s federal sentence hearing on Friday, Chief U.S. District Judge David R. Herndon described the testimony which he had heard at Moore’s trial as “harrowing.”

“There is no question in my mind that the public would be in danger if you were walking the streets,” the judge said, describing Moore as “a career criminal in my view.”

The armed robbery charge of which Moore was convicted is a federal “Hobbs Act Robbery.”

The Hobbs Act makes it a crime to obstruct, delay, or affect interstate commerce by robbery.

United States Attorney for the Southern District Steve Wigginton said he has used the act as a means combat armed robbery.

“This conviction is just the latest in a series of federal prosecutions I have initiated, as part of our efforts to send a clear message to these extraordinarily dangerous gunmen who commit armed robberies, that they will face harsh federal penalties for their crimes.” said Wigginton. “I will continue to use every available federal resource to try to ensure the safety of the citizens of Southern Illinois,” he said in a statement.

The investigation which resulted in Moore’s arrest and conviction was conducted by the FBI and the Illinois State Police.

The case was tried by Assistant United States Attorneys Steven Clark and Robert Garrison.