Man Who Stole Ambulance Gets Six Years in Prison
October 4, 2024

ST. LOUIS, MO (October 4, 2024) — Dwane Vardiman, 49, was sentenced to six years in prison Thursday for resisting arrest and tampering with a motor vehicle. Vardiman was found guilty in June of resisting arrest and tampering with a motor vehicle after stealing an ambulance from a hospital in Jefferson County and leading police on a pursuit through the city on October 3, 2022.


Vardiman had spent the night of October 2, 2022, at Mercy Hospital in Festus for a fentanyl overdose. At 8:30 a.m. the next day, he stole an ambulance belonging to the Valle Ambulance District parked outside the hospital and drove it into St. Louis. Two police officers in a patrol car saw the ambulance heading south on Jefferson Avenue at an excessive rate of speed and began to pursue it with their warning lights and sirens on.


During a 20-minute pursuit, Vardiman sped through heavy morning traffic, running red lights and driving in construction zones. He struck two police cars and one car driven by a civilian. The pursuit ended when police deployed spike strips and deflated his tires.


Vardiman was sentenced to six years for stealing the ambulance and four years for resisting arrest, to be served concurrently, by 22nd Judicial Circuit Judge Theresa C. Burke.


The case was prosecuted by Assistant Circuit Attorneys Andrew Russek and Kerri Davis.


Vardiman’s case number is 2222-CR01494-01.


              ### 

For Immediate Release

For more information contact:

Amber Raub

Public Information Officer

St. Louis Circuit Attorney's Office

rauba@stlouiscao.org

314-589-6233 (office)

314-312-9912 (cell)

More News

July 7, 2025
A 23-year-old man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for his role in a daylight armed robbery that was captured on surveillance and doorbell video in North St. Louis.
July 2, 2025
A St. Louis jury has convicted Anthony Moore, 30, of second-degree rape, first-degree burglary, and felony drug possession for a 2022 assault involving an unconscious woman at a hotel in the city’s The Hill neighborhood.
June 27, 2025
Terry Garey, 43, was sentenced Friday to four consecutive life sentences plus 15 years for sexually assaulting two young girls in St. Louis. A jury convicted Garey in May of three counts of first-degree statutory sodomy, one count of attempted statutory sodomy, and one count of first-degree child molestation.