LOUIS, Mo. – A suspect charged with murder had been out of federal prison for just six weeks before the deadly shooting of youth hockey player Colin Brown.
Garrett A. Jordan III, who was also on probation at the time, was convicted in August 2019 for being a felon in possession of a firearm. Federal prosecutors dropped additional charges of fentanyl possession with intent to distribute and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime as part of the plea agreement.
Court documents reveal that in April 2019, Garrett was a passenger in a stolen car that led police on a chase. When the vehicle stopped, he ran on foot but was quickly caught. A firearm was found on him during the arrest.
Inside the stolen car, St. Louis Metropolitan Police found 115 capsules of fentanyl. Martez Stevenson, the front-seat passenger, and Trevor Brothers, the driver, were also charged in the incident.
Following the plea, Garrett was sentenced to 48 months in prison. After completing his sentence in March 2023, he was released to serve two years of supervised probation.
However, in February 2024, Garrett’s probation was revoked due to failed drug tests and other violations, and he was sentenced to an additional eight months in prison. He was released again on October 11, and on November 23, Brown was shot and died four days later.
At the time of his 2019 plea, Garrett was already on federal probation after pleading guilty in July 2018 to possession with intent to distribute heroin. A second charge of the same offense was dropped as part of the plea deal.
The first indictment charge stemmed from December 2016 when Garrett was a passenger in a car that fled from police, with someone inside firing at officers. The car crashed, and Garrett was injured. When authorities found him, he was in possession of heroin.
The second charge came from January 2017, when Garrett was again a passenger in a car that dropped a gunshot victim off at a hospital. Hospital security detained him and found heroin. The car’s driver fled the scene, according to federal court documents.
Garrett was sentenced to an eight-month term for violating probation in the 2017 case, which ran concurrently with his 48-month sentence in the 2019 case.