ST. LOUIS, MO  (August 26, 2025) — Samuel Bailey, 74, pled guilty to second-degree murder, first-degree burglary, three counts of first-degree assault of a special victim, and unlawful possession of a firearm for the July 4, 2021, killing of his ex-girlfriend, 63-year-old Gail Keys, and the assault of three St. Louis City police officers who apprehended him following a standoff outside Keys’ home. Bailey was sentenced to 20 years in the Missouri Department of Corrections.

On July 4, 2021, Keys called 911 to report an unlawful entry at her home in the 5400 block of Ruskin in the City’s Mark Twain neighborhood, identifying the intruder as her ex-boyfriend. Responding officers accompanied Keys to her front door. As she opened the door and stepped inside, Bailey fired from inside the home, fatally wounding Keys. As officers were forming a perimeter, they confronted Bailey as he exited the rear of the home and took him into custody. Investigators recovered a seven-shot revolver from the gangway where Bailey was arrested and lifted Bailey’s palm print from plexiglass removed from a broken basement window.

“A person's home should be their refuge. She called for help, opened her own front door with police present, and the defendant opened fire. There is no true justice when a life is taken, but we hope today’s sentence provides a measure of justice to Ms. Keys’s surviving loved ones. There is only a measure of justice, and today that measure is 20 years,” said Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore.

Violent Crime Unit Supervisor, Adam Field, and Assistant Circuit Attorneys Aradhana Polley, and Samuel Morgan prosecuted the case.

Case number: 2122-CR01102-01.