William John Gourley, 43, of Arnold has been charged for allegedly holding a woman and two children hostage in a St. Louis hotel room. The two children were held captive for more than an hour, and the woman was held captive for more than 10 hours at the Drury Plaza Hotel St. Louis at the Arch, 2 S. Fourth St., authorities reported.
The Circuit Attorney of St. Louis charged Gourley on Jan. 26 with three counts of first-degree kidnapping, each one a class A felony; two counts of endangering the welfare of a child and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm, each one a class D felony; and five counts of armed criminal action, each one an unclassified felony.
A class A felony is punishable by 10 to 30 years or life in prison. A class D felony carries a penalty of up to seven years in prison, and armed criminal action is punishable by three to 15 years in prison.
Gourley was ordered to be held without bond, court records show.
The probable-cause statement in the case said police were called to the Drury Plaza Hotel on Jan. 24 when Gourley allegedly was holding the woman and children, who are 6 and 8 years old, hostage in one of the hotel rooms.
One of the children called police at about 5 a.m. Jan. 24 and said he and his sibling were locked in a bathroom in the hotel. The boy said a man was fighting with his mother, according to reports.
Gourley eventually got the phone and allegedly said he had a gun, reports said.
Police negotiated with Gourley for hours, and the children were released from the hotel at about 6:15 a.m. and the woman at about 3:30 p.m., according to reports.
Gourley surrendered to police about an hour after the woman was let go. Gourley, the woman and children all know each other, the reports said.
No one was injured.
Court records show Gourley has previous felony convictions in St. Louis and Jefferson counties.
On Oct. 1, 2018, Gourley pleaded guilty to resisting arrest stemming from an October 2015 incident in St. Louis County, and he pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery, two counts of felonious restraint and three counts of armed criminal action following an arrest in November 2015 in Kirkwood. He was sentenced to five years in prison for the robbery charge, five years for each of the felonious restraint charges and four years for each armed criminal action charge and for the resisting arrest charge, according to court documents.
However, those sentences were ordered to be served concurrently, or at the same time, court records show.
On Oct. 18, 2018, Gourley pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a firearm and possession of a controlled substance following an October 2015 arrest in Arnold. He was sentenced to four years in prison for each charge, and those sentences were served concurrently with the St. Louis County sentences, according to court documents.