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ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) - A former Northwoods officer was sentenced to a decade in prison Thursday after a jury found him guilty of deprivation of rights in April.

Jurors found Samuel Davis, 28, guilty of one count of deprivation of rights under color of law, one count of witness tampering and one count of falsifying records in a federal investigation.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Eastern District of Missouri, Davis had been called to a Walgreens on July 4, 2023, for a shoplifter. That shoplifter, identified only as C.G., was known to Davis, prosecutors say.

Prosecutors say Davis handcuffed C.G. and placed him in his police vehicle. Instead of taking C.G. to jail, Davis drove to Kinloch and beat C.G. while he remained handcuffed.

C.G. testified in court that Davis pepper-sprayed him, beat him with a baton and tased him. C.G. suffered a broken jaw in the assault.

Prosecutors say Davis fled the scene, leaving C.G. bloody on the ground, after a witness interrupted him. That witness returned to the area and found C.G. on the ground.

Davis had turned off his body-worn camera during the assault.

Jurors acquitted Davis' supervisor, 54-year-old former Northwoods Officer Michael Hill, of all federal charges. Hill remains charged with second-degree kidnapping in a state-level case in St. Louis County. A trial date for Hill's state-level case has not been set as of publication time.

Davis also faces state-level criminal charges. He was charged in July 2023 by St. Louis County prosecutors with first-degree assault, armed criminal action and second-degree kidnapping.

Davis had been arrested on these charges in Fayetteville, North Carolina, when he had gone into a police department to apply for a job.

A trial for Davis' state-level case has not yet been scheduled.

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