A local St. Louis court, led by Judge Clinton R. Wright, delivered a guilty verdict against John Wesley White, Jr., age 60, on a string of violence-related charges, as reported by the city’s Circuit Attorney’s office. The charges include second-degree assault on a special victim, resisting arrest, and three counts of fourth-degree assault, centered around a brutal altercation that took place on February 23, 2023, in a grocery store’s vicinity on N. Kingshighway Boulevard.
The details of the case paint a grim picture where White initiated a confrontation with a 69-year-old woman who was just trying to get into her car after shopping; the incident escalated as White aggressively threw her to the ground, hitting her repeatedly in the head and forcibly taking her cell phone, a phone she was attempting to use to call for help, following her inside the grocery store continuing his violent outburst White did not only terrorize the woman but also assaulted two employees, ages 29 and 62, who bravely tried to intervene and help the victim.
The violence did not cease outside the store. When law enforcement officers located White—an ex-convict on parole for second-degree murder—he struck an officer and resisted arrest, which required substantial effort from the police to ultimately detain him. In a statement shared by Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore, the nature of the crime was underscored, “This case involves a defenseless, elderly victim who was simply trying to go grocery shopping when she was violently attacked. No one should have to fear for their safety while doing something as basic and necessary as grocery shopping,” as mentioned on the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office website…