Fairview Heights man sentenced in Gateway Arch sexual assault

A federal judge on Friday sentenced a Fairview Heights man to 28 years in federal prison for sexually assaulting a woman in Gateway Arch National Park in 2023.

U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Clark ordered the sentence for Monte Derrell Boatman, 37, to run consecutively to the 84-month term he is serving for violating supervised release in a 2009 armed robbery case.

Prosecutors said Boatman arrived at the Laclede’s Landing MetroLink station about 5:15 p.m. on Dec. 6, 2023, and was captured on video passing the victim near Fourth Street and Washington Avenue minutes later. About a minute after that, he turned back and began following her, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

About 5:30 p.m., Boatman grabbed the woman from behind and forced her into bushes with a razor held to her neck, authorities said. He sexually assaulted her while repeatedly threatening to kill her, prosecutors said.

National Park Service rangers arrested Boatman two days later after a struggle in which one ranger required medical treatment, authorities said.

Boatman pleaded guilty in May 2025 in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to one count of aggravated sexual abuse.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jillian Anderson told the court Friday that Boatman’s 2023 assault followed a “largely unabated history of criminality since the age of 13,” according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

That history includes the 2009 robbery case in the Southern District of Illinois, prosecutors said. Authorities said Boatman and others robbed a drug dealer, triggering a vehicle chase and a multistate gun battle with the dealer. Boatman was sentenced in 2010 to 171 months in prison.

The National Park Service and the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department investigated the 2023 case, with assistance from the FBI. Anderson prosecuted it.