United States Attorney Ron Parsons announced that a Rapid City, South Dakota, man convicted of Carjacking Resulting in Serious Bodily Injury and Discharging a Firearm During and in Relation to a Crime of Violence was sentenced on June 20, 2019, by Chief Judge Jeffrey L. Viken, U.S. District Court.
Saul Crowe, age 25, was sentenced to 20 years and one month in federal prison. As to the Carjacking conviction, Crowe was sentenced to 10 years and one month in federal prison, followed by 5 years of supervised release, and ordered to pay a $100 special assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund. As to the Firearm conviction, Crowe was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison, to be served consecutively to the Carjacking sentence, followed by 5 years of supervised release, and ordered to pay a $100 special assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund.
A federal grand jury indicted Crowe in January 2018 on eight felony offenses beginning in August 2016, while Crowe was on federal supervised release for a prior federal felony conviction for Possession of a Firearm by a Prohibited Person.
The convictions for which Crowe was sentenced relate to Crowe’s carjacking of an occupied van on Oct. 13, 2017. Crowe held the victim at gunpoint and drove him to an isolated area north of Rapid City, where Crowe and his associates pistol-whipped and beat him. Crowe fired multiple rounds near the victim and made him beg for his life. Bullet casings from the location of the carjacking and beating were forensically matched to a weapon Crowe later abandoned in a vehicle after fleeing police. The Rapid City Police Department called Crowe “Rapid City’s most-wanted fugitive."
This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. The Department of Justice reinvigorated PSN in 2017 as part of its renewed focus on targeting violent criminals, directing all U.S. Attorney’s Offices to work in partnership with federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement and local communities to develop effective, locally-based strategies to reduce violent crime.
This case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Unified Narcotics Enforcement Team; Rapid City Police Department; Pennington County Sheriff’s Office; South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation; and the RCPD/PCSO Special Response Team. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kathryn N. Rich and Heather Sazama prosecuted the case.
Crowe was immediately turned over to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
