Illinois man charged in Southeast student's fatal shooting

An Illinois man was in custody Wednesday on charges he murdered a Southeast Missouri State University student during a failed robbery attempt last month in downtown St. Louis.

Christopher Grant, 18, of Collinsville, Illinois, was charged with first-degree murder and several other felonies in connection with the Jan. 11 shooting death of 19-year-old Robert Christman III, who was a sophomore at Southeast Missouri State University.

According to a probable-cause statement filed Wednesday in St. Louis circuit court, Christman, his brother and a woman -- identified in previous stories as Christman's 19-year-old girlfriend -- were sitting in a parked Chevrolet Cobalt in the 700 block of North 15th Street in St. Louis when Grant got out of a car, opened the driver's side door of the Cobalt and ordered the occupants out at gunpoint.

When Grant leaned into the vehicle to take a purse from the woman in the backseat, Christman tried to intervene, at which point Grant shot him in the head, according to the statement.

In addition to the murder charge, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Jennifer M. Joyce charged Grant with attempted first-degree robbery, unlawful use of a weapon and three counts of armed criminal action.

Bond was set at $1 million cash only, online court records show.

Less than 24 hours after the shooting, St. Louis police officers were in Washington Park, Illinois, when they saw a stolen Chrysler Sebring and pursued it down an alley.

Three people jumped out of the car -- which had been carjacked in St. Louis a day or two earlier -- exchanged gunfire with police and fled, Illinois State Police Capt. Jim Morrisey said last week.

Last week, authorities in Illinois announced Tony Ross, 19, of East St. Louis, Illinois, had turned himself in Jan. 23 and was charged with several felonies, including attempted first-degree murder, in connection with the Jan. 11 police pursuit in Washington Park.

Ross is accused of shooting at a police car and at St. Louis police officer Brian McGlynn.

St. Clair County, Illinois, State's Attorney Brendan Kelly said last week Ross and 18-year-old Aza K. Thompson, also of East St. Louis, had been arrested as a result of the investigation into Christman's death.

Thompson faces drug, weapons and possession of a stolen vehicle charges in connection with his Jan. 13 arrest on the East St. Louis Senior High School parking lot, where Morrisey said police found him driving a stolen Honda CR-V.

Morrisey described Thompson and Ross as "associates," but he and Kelly stopped short of connecting either man directly to Christman's death.

"We're trying to steer clear of that," Morrisey told the Southeast Missourian last week. "... That's really not our case, so we don't want to get in the middle of their stuff."

It was not immediately clear how -- or whether -- Grant had any connection to Ross or Thompson.

epriddy@semissourian.com

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