Famous Missouri Mugshot Records
Why start with famous cases? They teach the record trail. An old mugshot can surface in decades of news coverage, but the photo is not the case file. Outcomes are what count, and Missouri's famous cases prove it. Jason Stockley was acquitted. Lamar Johnson and Sandra Hemme saw their convictions vacated after years in prison. The path of the record matters more than any label on an old photo.
No booking photos appear on this page. The case notes point to court materials instead. A news photograph is not an agency booking image. Where no public official booking-photo URL is listed, that is the situation. A court opinion, judgment, or prosecutor's release documents the event or disposition it covers. For the full file, consult the docket or the record custodian.
Notable Missouri Arrest Outcomes
The table pairs each arrest reference with the recorded result. The court record and the photo question stay separate. Read a missing photo link narrowly. It means no public URL is listed, not that no photograph exists in agency files.
| Case and year | Agency or proceeding | Disposition | Record and photo path |
|---|---|---|---|
| Michael J. Devlin, 2007 | Kirkwood arrest; St. Louis County and federal proceedings | Guilty pleas in state and federal cases; federal life sentence | DOJ federal plea release, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, and St. Louis County Circuit Court. A UPI news-photo page is not an official booking-photo URL. |
| Jason Stockley, 2011 charge | St. Louis Metropolitan Police; St. Louis Circuit Court | Acquitted after a 2017 bench trial | Eighth Circuit opinion and the circuit docket. No official public booking-photo URL was verified. |
| Lamar Johnson, 1994 | St. Louis arrest; St. Louis Circuit Court | Conviction vacated in February 2023; released | State v. Johnson and related Missouri Supreme Court case materials and later court filing. No official public booking-photo URL was verified. |
| Sandra Hemme, 1980 | St. Joseph arrest and questioning; Buchanan County case and later relief proceeding | Conviction vacated in June 2024; later reporting described release in December 2024 | The June 2024 Livingston County Circuit Court judgment documents the order. No official public booking-photo URL was verified. |
| Steven V. Stenger, 2019 | Federal arrest and indictment, Eastern District of Missouri | Guilty plea; 46-month federal sentence in August 2019 | U.S. District Court case 4:19-cr-00312, with the DOJ sentencing release, complaint, and FBI case summary. No public official booking-photo URL was verified. |
| Cornelius M. Green and Phillip J. Cutler, 2016 case | Federal prosecution in the Eastern District of Missouri | Green pleaded guilty in February 2024. Cutler was convicted in March 2024 and sentenced to two consecutive life terms on June 18, 2024. | Federal complaints and docket; the DOJ release reports the separate outcomes. No verified official booking-photo URL was located. |
| Louis Enrique Colon, 2021 arrest | Federal arrest; District of Columbia prosecution | Pleaded guilty and received two years of probation on July 9, 2024 | U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia complaint and docket; the DOJ sentencing release gives the result. No verified official booking-photo URL was located. |
| Idella Gardner, 2022 arrest | Kansas City arrest; federal case in the Western District of Missouri | DOJ reported a guilty plea and 15-year sentence on April 7, 2026 | U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, with the DOJ release. No verified official booking-photo URL was located. |
The table is no substitute for the docket. Check the case number, court, and final order with the clerk. A prosecutor's release summarizes; the judgment controls.
Missouri Cases With Different Outcomes
Jason Stockley: acquittal after trial
Jason Stockley, a St. Louis Metropolitan Police officer, was charged in the 2011 shooting death of Anthony Lamar Smith. The Eighth Circuit's opinion walks through the complaint, warrant, indictment, bench trial, and later civil litigation. The University of Missouri System's 2017 statement records the response to the verdict as it happened.
Stockley was acquitted in a 2017 bench trial. That result anchors the case. The original record sits in St. Louis Circuit Court. Its Case.net docket holds the filings. The appellate opinion covers civil proceedings, not the whole trial file. No public booking-photo URL is listed. For any other case, let the docket settle the outcome. An old image never will.
Lamar Johnson: conviction vacated
Lamar Johnson was arrested in St. Louis in 1994. Convicted in 1995, he served nearly 28 years. Missouri Supreme Court materials include the case brief and documents and a later court filing. In February 2023, a St. Johnson walked free.
The original case is State v. Johnson in St. Louis Circuit Court, with trial and appellate filings forming the public record. No public booking-photo URL is listed. Check the later orders too. An old article or arrest record may still describe the conviction. A file can preserve an old step even after the court changes the outcome.
Sandra Hemme: later court relief
Sandra Hemme was arrested in St. Joseph in 1980. Police questioned her about Patricia Jeschke's killing. The Livingston County Circuit Court's June 2024 judgment survives as a copy of the court order. The appellate fight was State ex rel. Bailey v. Horsman in the Missouri Court of Appeals. The trial court vacated her conviction in June 2024. Reporting later placed her release in December 2024.
The paper trail spreads across several places. The original criminal record belongs to Buchanan County Circuit Court and St. Joseph Police investigative files. The Livingston County proceeding handled the relief. No public booking-photo URL is listed. For an old case like this, name two courts: the one that issued the original judgment and the one that later changed it. Each answers a different question, and both may be needed.
Where Missouri Booking Photos Live
Most cases in the table have no public official booking photo. A search result or an old media photograph proves nothing about an image's origin. Third-party pages deserve the same caution. Ask the arresting agency instead. Find out which record series holds its booking photographs and whether that specific record can be released. Some arrests later become federal prosecutions. When that happens, the arresting office holds one set of records and the federal court holds another.
Devlin is the one exception. UPI still hosts a news-photo page from its coverage of his federal plea. It shows how the press covered the case at the time. Still, it is an editorial image, not an agency booking-photo URL. The federal case file sits in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. State proceedings ran through St. Louis County Circuit Court. Older records take different forms. The Old Mugshot Archives guide explains how state-prison photographs and county records differ from a modern booking image.
Some cases speak through court papers. Hemme's case rests on a judgment. Stockley's procedural history comes from the appellate opinion, while the criminal docket holds the trial result. Johnson's case depends on later filings. An old conviction record alone omits the order vacating it. Trace each document to its issuing court and check its date and scope before relying on it.
Federal cases demand the right district. Devlin and Stenger's records sit in the Eastern District of Missouri, and that district's DOJ office also documents Green and Cutler's case. Colon was prosecuted in the District of Columbia. Gardner's case belongs to the Western District of Missouri. A DOJ summary helps you locate the event. For case status, though, the federal docket and judgment are the records to consult, and any request for a booking image should go to the arresting agency with the date and case identifier.
Look Up Any Missouri Arrest
A famous case follows the same records path as any routine booking. Start with the agency and the date. A roster is only a custody snapshot. Released people drop off it, even though their booking record remains with the agency.
- Identify the arresting agency. Use the county or city where the arrest occurred and the approximate booking date. The County Directory points to Missouri local sites.
- Check the right record layer. A local roster covers current custody when an agency publishes one. Ask the sheriff or police records custodian for an older booking record that no longer appears online.
- Find the court file. Use the case number and court to confirm charges, pleas, trial results, judgments, and later orders. Do not infer the disposition from a booking entry.
- Use archives for older material. For prison-era photographs or older records, follow the collection and request path in the archives guide.
Start with the Missouri arrest and mugshot guide to see how booking data flows across the state's counties. It maps the current path for recent arrests and shows where county rosters fall short. Coverage varies a great deal from one courthouse to the next. That gap matters when you are tracking a name. Treat any booking photo as a snapshot of one arrest, nothing more.