Hannibal man who stole Quincy Police Department squad car in July 2023 receives eight-year prison sentence

HANNIBAL, Mo. — A Hannibal, Mo., man who stole a Quincy Police Department squad car in July 2023 and was eventually apprehended in Hannibal received an eight-year sentence in the Missouri Department of Corrections on Wednesday.

Marcus McGruder, 47, appeared in Marion County Circuit Court with Public Defender Andrew Smith before Judge Rachel Bringer Shepherd. He pled guilty to one count of first-degree tampering with a motor vehicle, a Class D felony, and one count of resisting arrest as a persistent felony offender, a Class E felony.

McGruder will serve eight years in prison for the tampering charge and seven years on the resisting arrest charge. The sentences will run concurrently. Charges of unlawful possession of a firearm and stealing a firearm were dismissed.

The Quincy (Ill.) Police Department (QPD) reported on July 31, 2023, that McGruder had been loitering in the QPD parking lot for more than 30 minutes, then broke the driver’s side window of a locked squad car and entered the vehicle at approximately 7:51 a.m.  Finding the keys in the vehicle, McGruder drove out of the parking lot and headed west over the Bayview Bridge into Missouri.  Officers tracked the vehicle using on-board technology. 

A probable cause statement by Cpl. Steven Myers of the Hannibal Police Department (HPD) said officers were notified at 7:59 a.m. of the stolen vehicle, which also had a loaded rifle inside. Myers said he saw the vehicle near Missouri Route 168 and U.S. 61 and began pursuit for approximately eight minutes. He said McGruder drove around Hannibal in a “reckless manner,” almost causing multiple crashes.

McGruder eventually pulled into an address on Munger Lane, where he was taken into custody and later lodged in the Marion County Jail.