Murder Charges Against Dejuan Allen Dismissed After 6 Years

Now 25, Allen spent five years in the City Justice Center before a mistrial in May

Nov 14, 2023 at 9:25 am

SLMPD

Charges were officially dropped against Dejuan Allen, almost six years after being filed.

Prosecutors in St. Louis city dismissed murder charges yesterday, almost six years after first filing them against a man who was at the time 19.

Dejuan Allen, now 25, has spent five of the last six years locked up in the City Justice Center, charged with murdering Kendrick Isaiah Woods, 19, who was found dead on the back porch of a home off DeTonty Street in the Shaw neighborhood in December 2017.

Prosecutors charged Allen with first-degree murder and armed criminal action that same month. The police probable cause statement supporting the charges says that a witness observed Allen fatally shoot Woods. A grand jury indicted Allen the following February.

But after that, the case crawled through the court system, with trial dates set numerous times only to be continued and a half-dozen prosecutors with the St. Louis Circuit Attorney's Office filing appearances in the case at one time or another.

By May of this year, when Allen's case was finally heard by a jury, he had spent five years locked up in the City Justice Center.

The trial took place amid the chaotic collapse of the prosecutor's office during Kim Gardner's last days as circuit attorney. The case against Allen centered on the testimony of that single eye witness referenced in the probable cause statement. There was no ballistic or physical evidence and the one other witness put on the stand wasn't present at the time of Woods' death, reported KSDK's Mark Maxwell.

A juror told KSDK that the prosecutor arguing the case, Sai Chigurupati, "looked very nervous the whole time. It was just terrible." At the time, due to the mass turnover that plagued Gardner’s final months, Chigurupati was the sole prosecutor remaining in the office's Violent Crimes Unit.

The jury could not reach a verdict and Judge Scott Millikan declared a mistrial. Allen was released on house arrest, with a new trial scheduled to begin yesterday.

Christine Bertelson, the spokeswoman for the Circuit Attorney’s Office, says that in the wake of the mistrial, the resignation of Gardner and the appointment of Gabe Gore as circuit attorney, the Allen case was assigned to a special assistant circuit attorney for review.

Bertelson says that after reviewing the case, the prosecutor recommended the case be dismissed.

"The dismissal of this case reflects a decision reached following an application of the Office’s rigorous process," says Bertelson.

Yesterday morning, Judge Millikan filed an order in the case saying that in anticipation of the nolle prosequi, he was ordering Allen's bond conditions "deleted," releasing Allen from house arrest and electronic monitoring.

A voicemail for Allen's attorney Paul Sims was not returned.