Jason W. Woolbright, 48, of the Arnold area has been sentenced to four years and nine months in prison for breaking out of jail in June 2021 while he was awaiting trial on a gun charge, the U.S. District Attorney’s Office announced.
Woolbright pleaded guilty March 9 to escaping from the St. Ann Police Jail, along with two other prisoners, where he was being held on a gun charge stemming from an arrest in October 2020 in St. Louis. On June 7, Judge Ronnie L. White of the U.S. Eastern District Court of Missouri handed down the sentence.
At about 11:40 p.m. July 9, Woolbright, Joshua Brown and Walter Wilson escaped through a window at the St. Ann Police Jail, and they drove away in a red 1996 Ford Mustang that Woolbright had arranged to have parked near the Jail for the escape. U.S. marshals found and arrested all three prisoners within 24 hours, according to Woolbright’s plea agreement.
The U.S. Marshals Service said Woolbright and Brown were apprehended at a home on Michigan Avenue in the Dutchtown neighborhood in St. Louis. Both Woolbright and Wilson were facing a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm. Brown was charged with possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime, according to court records.
The plea agreement also said Christian Louise Deal, 47, of Imperial aided in the escape, after Woolbright arranged for Deal to purchase the Mustang in June 2021 and spoke with her 20 times from a jail phone between July 8 and July 9. During their conversations, Woolbright told Deal to contact numerous people to arrange to have the car stashed near the jail, and on July 9, Deal told Woolbright a tow truck would leave the Mustang at a parking lot near the jail and told him where he would find the car keys and money.
On April 21, Deal pleaded guilty to assisting in the escape, and she is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 2, court records show.
Brown is being held on the drug and gun charges, and Wilson is scheduled to be sentenced for the gun charge Aug. 2 following a jury trial that concluded March 8, according to court documents.
Woolbright was being held at the St. Ann Police Jail after St. Louis Police arrested him on Oct. 1, 2020, when officers stopped a cargo van he was driving because he ran a stop sign at the intersection of Michigan Avenue and Holly Hills Avenue. Woolbright was on supervised release from prison at that time following a conviction for conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute cocaine, according to the plea agreement.
When an officer asked Woolbright for his driver’s license, he told the officer he only had a prison ID, and the officer saw the van’s steering column had been damaged. Woolbright told the officer he had to start the van with a screwdriver, the plea said.
The officer also saw a yellow bar-like tablet in the van, and Woolbright said it was Xanax, and after arresting Woolbright, the officer searched the van and found a Colt MK-IV semi-automatic handgun that was loaded with a live round and had seven rounds in the attached magazine. Woolbright said the gun belonged to him and admitted he knew he was not allowed to possess a gun because of his prior conviction, according to the agreement.
Woolbright’s case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, U.S. Marshals Service and St. Louis Police. U.S. assistant attorney Kyle T. Bateman handled the case.