Deputy AG brings experience to Safer Streets prosecutions

Jessica Shumaker//January 6, 2020//

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The new year marked a major milestone in an effort to reduce violent crime statewide through greater cooperation between the Missouri Attorney General’s Office and federal prosecutors.

The Safer Streets Initiative — launched by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt last January — has, as of December, netted more than 100 indictments for offenses ranging from carjackings to felons in possession of a firearm.

The premise was simple: The AG’s office would supply attorneys who would be sworn as special U.S. attorneys. The additional staffing would enable federal prosecutors to investigate and prosecute violent-offender cases at a higher volume.

State officials say federal law equips them with more tools to prosecute violent offenders, while strict and weighty federal sentencing guidelines also help to keep offenders off the streets for longer periods.

Believed to be the first of its kind nationally, the initiative placed five state attorneys in the Eastern District of Missouri and three in the Western District of Missouri — two in Kansas City and one in Springfield.

The cases have not reached final disposition, but state officials say the initiative already has led to the seizure of more than 100 illegal firearms. They believe those seizures will help to reduce violent crime in the state’s largest cities, where gun violence has prompted ongoing concern among civic and community leaders.

Cristian “Cris” Stevens, deputy attorney general for criminal litigation in the AG’s office, oversees the fledgling program. Schmitt hired the St. Charles native in January 2019 from Armstrong Teasdale.

Previously, Stevens served for 15 years as an assistant U.S. attorney in St. Louis. His former boss and mentor, U.S. Attorney Jeff Jensen, calls him “a star.”

“He puts together brilliant legal analyses but also has phenomenal trial skills,” said Jensen, adding that the combination makes Stevens a tenacious prosecutor.

“He would take tough cases at first and investigate them so hard they became strong cases in court,” Jensen said.

Stevens’ prosecutorial career showed success in a range of cases, Jensen added. In 2012, he secured a life sentence for Harold Ford, a man convicted of carjacking a woman and shooting a police officer in 2009.

He also led the federal investigation of the 2014 fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, for which he received the U.S. Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service in 2015.

‘The worst of the worst’

Safer Streets resulted from Schmitt’s desire to reduce violent crime in the St. Louis area and across the state, Stevens said.

Schmitt, Stevens and the First Assistant Attorney General, Tom Albus — also an alumnus of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri — met to discuss options, and the idea of providing more muscle to federal prosecutors emerged.

Stevens said the inaugural group of special U.S. attorneys — or SAUSAs — was selected through internal interviews. He said officials in the AG’s office interviewed several attorneys with a criminal litigation background.

Those selected are “all very impressive individuals who have had substantial experience trying cases,” he said. “What they didn’t have was experience on the federal side — I think they looked at this as an exciting opportunity.”

Stevens’ primary role in Safer Streets is managing the SAUSA team. He regularly travels to the U.S. Attorneys’ offices to meet with the team, talk about its cases and meet with the U.S. Attorneys.

“Really they came in, they learned the federal system very quickly and now stand shoulder to shoulder with federal prosecutors prosecuting the worst of the worst,” Jensen said. “The net effect of their involvement here is we are able to get through investigations and prosecutions more quickly because we have such volume. It helps us get violent criminals off the streets fast.”

‘A clear message’

Stevens said the SAUSAs aren’t just handling gun and drug-dealing cases: Federal law also enables them to prosecute carjackings, an offense not specifically covered under state law.

Carjackings are a particular concern in the city of St. Louis, where 350 carjackings were reported in 2018, according to St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department data. 2019 appears to be on pace to match or exceed that amount. At the end of November, the last month for which data was available, 324 carjackings were reported in 2019 — up one from the same point in 2018.

Across the state, the Kansas City Police Department does not specifically track instances of carjackings.

“From our experience with the Safer Streets Initiative, we realized it’d be a good idea to have a carjacking statute as well,” Stevens said. Schmitt’s office is lobbying for such a law in the upcoming legislative session.

The initiative also has prosecuted individuals for violent robberies under the Hobbs Act, which criminalizes robbery and extortion affecting interstate commerce.

In addition to allowing prosecutors to tap into federal laws, Stevens said another benefit of working within the federal system is that sentencing guidelines result in serious sentences for offenders.

“That sends a clear message — if you’re going to engage in violent crime in the St. Louis region, the Kansas City region, we’re prepared to prosecute it and vigorously prosecute it, so that someone who’s doing really bad things is going to go away for a long time,” he said. “That sends a message.”