Man connected with fatal shooting of Illinois State Police trooper pleads guilty
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An Illinois state trooper killed in East St. Louis
Read the BND’s previous coverage of the killing of Nicholas Hopkins while Illinois State Police served a no-knock warrant in East St. Louis in August 2019.
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One of two men charged in connection with a 2019 police standoff in East St. Louis that resulted in the death of an Illinois State Police trooper has pleaded guilty to three charges in St. Clair County Circuit Court.
Al D. Stewart Jr., 21, changed his not-guilty plea to guilty on Feb. 10, according to Chris Allen, spokesman for the St. Clair County state’s attorney’s office. Stewart had been charged with one count of armed violence, one count of obstructing justice and one count of possession with intent to distribute cannabis.
Allen declined to comment on why no order related to Stewart’s guilty plea had been filed with the St. Clair County circuit clerk’s office as of Wednesday.
“We’re unable to comment on the case as it is pending litigation before the court,” Allen said.
Stewart’s sentencing hearing has been scheduled for Aug. 23. That’s two years to the day after Trooper Nicholas Hopkins, 33, of Waterloo, was shot and killed while serving as part of an ISP Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team executing a search warrant at a duplex where Stewart lived.
Investigators determined that Stewart wasn’t the shooter. According to the state charges, he was armed with a handgun while he “knowingly possessed with the intent to deliver more than 10 grams but not more than 30 grams of a substance containing cannabis.”
Stewart has been in St. Clair County Jail for 23 days, Allen said. He formerly had been incarcerated by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons after pleading guilty to a federal gun charge related to the standoff. He was sentenced in September to four years in prison, to run concurrently with any sentence that may be imposed in St. Clair County.
Police showed up at 1426 N. 26th St. in East St. Louis in the early morning hours of Aug. 23, 2019, to execute a “no-knock” search warrant. They reportedly were acting on a tip that Christopher R. Grant, who was living on one side of the duplex, was producing and selling crack cocaine and cannabis and keeping a stash of firearms.
Hopkins reportedly was standing on the porch when he was shot in the head. He later died in a St. Louis hospital. Stewart and Grant engaged in a day-long standoff with East St. Louis police, Illinois State Police, the SWAT team and other law enforcement.
Grant is awaiting trial in St. Clair County Circuit Court after being charged with first-degree murder and pleading not guilty. He also is awaiting trial in U.S. District Court in East St. Louis.
A federal grand jury indicted Grant in March of 2020 on eight charges, including one count each of first-degree murder, maintaining a drug house, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug crime, using a firearm in furtherance of a drug crime and being a felon in possession of a firearm. He also is charged with three counts of distributing crack.
Grant’s family told the BND that he was asleep when police raided the duplex and thought he was firing at someone trying to break in.
Stewart pleaded guilty on June 8, 2020, in U.S. District Court to a federal charge of unlawfully using a controlled substance while in possession of a gun. He was sentenced on Sept. 10, 2020.
“The defendant knew he was an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance,” his plea agreement stated. “And the firearm possessed by the defendant traveled in Interstate Commerce prior to the defendant’s possession of it.”
According to the federal complaint, police recovered 12 marijuana plants and supplies for maintaining them, 35 joints, unrolled marijuana and a large cache of weapons from the duplex, including Stewart’s .40 caliber Glock pistol that police connected forensically to a double homicide on Oct. 3, 2018, in East St. Louis and two other non-fatal shootings.
This story was originally published February 24, 2021 at 2:53 PM.
