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Pine Lawn man pleads guilty in 2018 Christmas Eve kidnapping, homicide

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ST. LOUIS – A Pine Lawn man already in federal prison for a fatal carjacking was sentenced Monday for a murder in a north St. Louis neighborhood.

Lashawn Clayburn, 21, appeared in court and admitted to kidnapping and killing Chrishaun Hilliard on Dec. 24, 2018.

According to court documents, Clayburn and two other men kidnapped Hilliard at gunpoint and brought him to an abandoned house in the 5600 block of Wabada Avenue, located in the Wells-Goodfellow neighborhood, where one of the kidnappers shot him.

Hilliard’s body was found weeks later at the home after it had caught fire. Hilliard was 26.

Clayburn pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, first-degree robbery, kidnapping, and armed criminal action for Hilliard’s death. A St. Louis Circuit Court judge sentenced Clayburn to 10 years in prison, which will run concurrently to a 25-year federal sentence he’s already serving.

Last year, Clayburn pleaded guilty to carjacking and killing Naomi Miller. On Jan. 5, 2019, Miller had just left her home and was about to leave to go to her nursing job when she was carjacked and shot.

Federal prosecutors said Clayburn spent the next several hours joyriding in Miller’s vehicle and picked up several friends. He met with relatives to discuss disposing of the stolen car.

The following day, Clayburn met with a group of friends and traded Miller’s car for another stolen vehicle. Clayburn and his friends took the license plate off Miller’s car and tossed it in a neighboring backyard. They replaced it with a license plate from another stolen car.

On March 13, 2019, while in police custody, Clayburn placed a recorded jail call to his cousin in an attempt to arrange an alibi for the Miller carjacking.

Clayburn pleaded guilty to one count of carjacking resulting in death and one count of discharge of a firearm in furtherance of a carjacking resulting in death.

Clayburn was 17 at the time of both murders.