Will be Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison



ST. LOUIS, MO (December 1, 2023) — Benjamin A. Chatman, 35, pleaded guilty Friday to second-degree murder in the shooting death of 35-year-old Gregory Jordan in an argument over a drug debt. Jordan, of Jennings, was shot Sept. 7, 2015, in the 1400 block of Shawmut Place in St. Louis’s Hamilton Heights neighborhood.

After the shooting, Chatman fled to New York where he was arrested by U.S. Marshals. In his statement to police, Chatman denied shooting the victim. He claimed he had moved to Buffalo prior to the shooting and was living there at the time of the shooting.

The case originally went to trial in 2017, and Chatman was convicted of first- degree murder and armed criminal action. The first-degree murder conviction carried a mandatory sentence of life without parole.

Chatman later appealed, saying that he was never informed he was facing life without parole, and instead stood trial with the belief that 20 years was the most he’d receive for a conviction.

In 2022, 22^nd Circuit Court Judge Bryan Hettenbach vacated the convictions after determining that Chatman’s trial lawyer had misinformed him about Missouri’s sentencing law, causing Chatman to reject a more favorable plea deal from 2017 for 20 years.

Chatman was scheduled to be retried next week. In exchange for his guilty plea pursuant to a recommended sentence of 25 years, prosecutors amended the first- degree murder charge to second-degree murder, and dismissed one count of armed criminal action.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant Circuit Attorney Adam Field.

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