One of the men who stole guns from businesses in Imperial and south of Arnold has been sentenced to 46 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $3,875, the U.S. District Attorney’s Office reported.
Jynell Edward Luss, 25, of Jennings was sentenced on April 13 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. He will serve the sentence consecutively to a 20-year sentence he received in March 2025 after pleading guilty to second-degree murder and armed criminal action in an unrelated case in St. Louis, court records show.
Luss pleaded guilty in January to federal charges of theft of firearms from a federal firearms licensee for his role in the Jefferson County thefts, according to court documents.
Carnell Robinson, 24, of Jennings pleaded guilty to the same charge in November 2023 and was sentenced to 13 months in prison in February 2024. He also pleaded guilty to first-degree burglary and two counts of stealing in March 2023 in Jefferson County and was sentenced to eight years in prison, court records show.
According to Luss’ guilty plea, the two men broke into Mike’s Pawn and Jewelry, 5636 Hwy. 61-67, in Imperial at about 1 a.m. July 12, 2020. Surveillance video showed Robinson using a television to break open a glass case, and the men stole four AR-style rifles, a shotgun, ammunition and jewelry.
Luss was seen in the video wearing a distinctive shoulder bag, and he was seen ripping the rifles off a rack, breaking the trigger guards. Investigators reviewed Luss’ social media accounts and saw him wearing the shoulder bag and holding an AR-style rifle with a broken trigger guard, the guilty plea said.
At about 1 a.m. July 13, Luss and Robinson were seen arriving at Top Gun, 4075 W. Outer Road, south of Arnold in a white Ford Focus that was seen leaving Mike’s Pawn Jewelry after the previous theft. The men stole two rifles from Top Gun, where they were seen in surveillance video the day before purchasing ammunition from the business, according to the guilty plea.
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated the case.
Assistant U.S. attorney Donald Boyce prosecuted the case.