Crime & Safety

Prisoner Briefly Escaped St. Peters Justice Center

The man, in jail on a burglary and theft charge, never was out of sight of corrections officer, police said.

A prisoner in St. Peters municipal jail briefly escaped from the St. Peters jail Oct. 30 after pushing a corrections officer and grabbing his keys, making it a short distance outside the St. Peters Justice Center at 1020 Grand Teton.

“He was never out of sight of our officers,” said St. Peters Police Media Relations Officer Melissa Doss.

Doss said that Zachary Mills, 21, of Wright City, allowed to make a phone call, but instead he pushed a corrections officer back several feet and grabbed his keys.

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Mills made it outside the center and ran between apartment buildings in a nearby complex. An officer got close enough to him to point a Taser at Mills, who then stopped running and surrendered.

Mills was charged Oct. 31 with assaulting a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest. Bail for those charges was set at $5,000.

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He had been charged Oct. 25 with second-degree burglary and felony theft. He was being held at the jail in lieu of a $1,500 bond.

Police said he broke into a home in the first block of Huntsman Trail in St. Charles County Aug. 21, where he stole gold jewelry valued at $1,150. He sold it to a gold buyer for $200, police said.

He was arrested in Ferguson on another theft charge.

Mills told police he was homeless, but planned to move back into his mother’s house. He said he was trying to break a heroin addiction.

For more crime information on St. Peters Patch, see the following articles:

  • Men Busted Riding in Stolen SUV in St. Peters by Undercover Officer


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