It was early in the morning on June 24, 2022, when surveillance cameras at a Hazelwood QuikTrip captured a violent encounter between two men that escalated from an attack in a gas station to a fight for control of the steering wheel in a moving vehicle.
The battle escalated after Phillip March, the car’s owner, dived through the driver-side window into the slowly moving vehicle to continue fighting for control.
The fight lasted about seven minutes and ended less than a mile away when the car, a red Mustang, hit a brick wall in the back of the Hazelwood Police Department.
The videos show March being pummeled, kicked and dragged by his own car. Yet, three years later, March is facing trial over $10,000 worth of damage done to the police building. The man who attacked him, Jamezz Block, has avoided the same legal repercussions and appears to have vanished.
Despite the video evidence of the attack clearly showing March fighting for control with a man in the driver’s seat, Hazelwood’s police and prosecuting attorney focused their attention on March, charging him with driving under the influence — a charge the city dropped last year just days before it was set to go to trial.
The dismissal came after the prosecutors provided March with discovery materials for his case, which included surveillance footage of the attack.
To March, video shows a clear-cut example of an attempted carjacking.
“I was kicked in the face. One of my teeth was knocked out and another one was chipped,” March said. “I just wanted to stop him from trying to steal my car.”
A review by St. Louis Public Radio of police reports, hospital records and legal filings related to the 2022 incident raises questions about March’s treatment after the arrest — and why Hazelwood continues to prosecute a man based on evidence that appears to show him to be a victim.
March points to the videos as proof of his innocence. Meanwhile, Hazelwood’s legal filings and police reports cite the same footage of the incident — showing the attack and later crash into the police department — as evidence of March’s guilt.
March is to face trial later this month for a single charge of property damage, a municipal violation that could carry a penalty of to 90 days in jail and $1,000 fine.
On Sept. 10, March rejected a prosecutor’s offer to drop the property damage charge for pleading guilty to illegal parking. March told STLPR that he wants to expose what he calls Hazelwood’s misconduct against him in court.
“The video showed that he carjacked me, took my keys, kicked me in the face, and tried to run off with my car. He was never charged with assault.”
“I was the person being charged,” March said. “And I was the victim of a crime.”
'I told him, 'No''
The man who attacked March, he said, was his longtime friend and roommate Jamezz Block.
The gas station’s surveillance video shows both men arriving in March’s car at 1:17 a.m., with March driving and Block in the passenger seat. At the time, the men were living at the same address in Ferguson.
STLPR could not reach Block for comment at the address and phone number on his court file, or at a phone number derived from an online background check. The court docket for Block’s case includes a note that official mail sent to him was returned as undeliverable.
March told STLPR he believes Block was not thinking clearly and having a mental health breakdown. March said he pulled into the QuikTrip that night hoping to contact a security guard, but none was on duty.
March said he planned to call 911. He didn’t get that chance.
“[Block] wanted me to drive him around some places. And I told him no,” he said. “I know the police building is by the QuikTrip. And I know he was getting a little attitude, so I was going to go tell them to put him out of my car.”
“I just wanted him out of my car,” he emphasized.
The video shows March walking into the store and stopping briefly at the front door to talk with an employee. (March said he was asking about a security guard, a claim corroborated by the clerk in a later police interview.)
When March’s back is fully turned, Block makes his move: After pausing to crouch behind the Mustang, he dashed inside to intercept March by the store’s front counter. Block immediately grabbed at March’s right pocket.
The two began to struggle against the counter.
It was a quick and brutal fight. Video shows Block grabbing March’s head and pulling it down while kicking his knee up into March’s face. Block then threw two punches, grappling, spinning and pushing March until the keys finally fell to the floor. The struggle continued for a few more seconds before Block picked up the keys and broke free. He ran to the Mustang parked outside.
The fight lasted barely one minute and left March injured and reeling. He could have let Block go. It was 1:19 in the morning.
Instead, March gave chase, hobbling out of the store. He caught up to Block just as his former friend-turned-attacker closed the driver-side door and started the car.
Keeping his right leg planted on the ground, March climbed inside the car — and fought for the wheel.
Then the car began to back up.
In the footage, March’s white sneakers can be seen sticking out of the driver-side door. As the car swings back toward the gas pumps, March’s left foot can be seen still wedged against the open car door, his right foot hopping along the ground in a desperate attempt to keep up. Then the Mustang pulled out of view of the surveillance camera.
At this point, March said he decided to seek help from the Hazelwood police.
It’s a decision that changed his life.
“I knew where the police department was at,” March said. “After I jumped through the window to try to get my car back, I could kind of steer it a little bit. I wouldn't let him turn right or left onto Lindbergh [Boulevard]. The only thing he could do was go straight across.”
The vehicle crossed the six-lane road and traveled about the length of four football fields. At 1:23 a.m., Hazelwood Police Department security cameras captured the car entering the parking lot outside a complex of buildings that house the city’s municipal offices, including its city hall, jail and police department.
“Once [Block] realized that we was at the police station,” March said, “he kicked me in the face and kicked me out of the car again.”
The footage shows Block struck March several times in the head. March held on.
Moments later, the car lurched forward, slamming the open car door into March’s body. March estimates the car traveled about 10 feet before meeting the wall. The footage of the crash is a blur — but two identifiable figures, first March, then Block, emerge from the driver-side door.
Moments later, the surveillance video ends with blue and red lights flashing over the two men.
'He hit a wall'
After a loud “boom,” a chaotic scene greeted a group of police officers emerging from the department. The officers separated March and Block, and March identified himself as the car’s owner.
An officer told him he was being placed under arrest.
“They was like, ‘Well, put your hands behind your back. You're going to jail,’” he recalled. “They was mad, they was just angry for some reason I couldn't understand. I was like, ‘Let me tell you what happened. Let me explain to you what happened.’ And no one wanted to hear my side of the story.”
March’s version of events conflicts in several ways with the police report.
At first, the responding officers treated the situation as a case of domestic violence. But that investigation quickly focused on a different angle — one that made March the cause of the chaos. In his report, Hazelwood officer Robert Lunatto reported smelling alcohol on March’s breath, writing “[March’s] eyes were watering and his speech was disorganized.”
March denies drinking that night.
In his report, Lunatto said March complained of a head injury, prompting his transport to a hospital. The officer wrote, “March denied driving the red Mustang and [said] Block had stolen his vehicle from him.”
As for Block, Lunatto found him “incoherent in his statements and [he said] numerous times to look at the cameras at the QT.” Lunatto said Block claimed that March struck and bit him in the car prior to their arrival at QuikTrip and that he was only defending himself. (March denies Block’s claims.)
Both Block and March were treated for their various injuries. March provided STLPR with his medical records from SSM Health DePaul Hospital; he is described as sustaining injuries to a tooth and cuts to his nose and forehead.
After March underwent a physical exam, his behavior was described as normal. The physician's comments do not mention alcohol or slurred speech.
Still, Hazelwood had locked its focus on March as a DWI case. At the scene, March did not submit to a breath test and later declined to give a blood sample. He resolved to fight the allegations of DWI at trial.
He would wait two years for that opportunity.
In the summer of 2024, Hazelwood’s prosecuting attorney finally provided March with video as part of the official discovery process; the materials also included a crime scene photo of a small bottle of rum police said they recovered from the back seat of the Mustang. March insists the bottle is not his and was planted.
The description of the evidence in Lunatto’s report doesn’t mention the bottle of rum. March shared a separate police report from the incident with STLPR; the report includes a field with the box for “Containers of Intoxicants in or around vehicle" marked “no.”
March said watching the footage of the attack for the first time was difficult. But the videos moved him for another reason: They validated what he had spent two years preparing to argue in court, that Block had initiated the attack and was driving the car when it crashed.
“It takes a lot, when you walk into that court, in front of a judge for something that you know you didn’t do,” March said. “It's really hard. But you just try to work through it and get through it.”
Days before the trial, Hazelwood dropped its DWI case against March.
Once again, he could have walked away.
The train arrives
On Aug. 28, 2024, March sent an email to Hazelwood’s then-City Manager Matt Zimmerman.
March’s message warned that “the train is coming” — a metaphor for a lawsuit he planned to file. It would name the City of Hazelwood; Lunatto, the officer; and three other officers who responded to the 2022 incident.
The lawsuit would seek $5 million in damages for each charge, which includes malicious prosecution, conspiracy and abuse of process.
However, before March could file his lawsuit, Hazelwood acted. On Sept. 5, Hazelwood Prosecuting Attorney Stephanie Karr charged March with property damage, a municipal violation.
The next day Karr charged Block with the same crime.
In the year since then, March has increased his legal pressure on Hazelwood. He points to the dropped DWI charge and the fact that even the police report acknowledges what the surveillance footage shows — that March was fighting Block from inside the car and emerged first after the crash.
Lunatto’s crash report referred to March as “Driver 1” and Block as “Occupant 1.” Lunatto wrote: “It is important to note that both Driver 1 and Occupant 1 were both seen in the driver’s seat of Vehicle 1. Driver 1 exited Vehicle 1 first, then was followed by Occupant 1.”
In a supplemental narrative, however, Lunatto seemed to identify March as the sole driver of the vehicle. “After the accident,” the officer reported, “I observed March exit the driver seat of the vehicle.”
March argues that the case against him requires twisting the video evidence. He points to the timing of the new charges as additional proof that Hazelwood is prosecuting him out of retaliation.
Meanwhile, the criminal proceedings against Block have seemingly stalled since February.
The court docket on Block’s case shows notices for multiple delayed hearings and court mail returned as undeliverable.
March said it doesn’t surprise him that he is now the only defendant preparing for trial against Hazelwood this month.
“If I don't appear in court, they issue a warrant,” he said. “What they want it to look like is they’re not playing [favorites], but they are. Because if they wanted [Block] in a court, they know how to get him.”
Legal moves
March’s trial is set for Sept. 22. The prosecutor won’t be Karr.
In a court hearing on Sept. 10, Matt Brown, a prosecutor with St. Louis County, told a judge that Hazelwood had appointed him “out of an abundance of caution” after March had filed a motion to disqualify Karr.
March is an activist and was part of the Ferguson protest movement that swept the region in 2014. He helped lead a campaign demanding the resignation of various Ferguson officials — including Karr, who was serving as Ferguson’s city attorney and prosecutor.
Karr’s dual roles drew criticism from activists and the Justice Department. The DOJ eventually released a report documenting a predatory web of court practices throughout St. Louis County and highlighted Karr’s actions as prosecutor. She maintained that she acted properly and without racial bias in the role, which she had held since 2004. In May 2016, Ferguson officials announced the city would replace Karr. She resigned later that month.
March included those details in his legal salvo against Hazelwood this summer. In his motion to disqualify Karr, he cited the DOJ report and the complaints against Karr he had documented a decade ago for the activist group Ground Level Support.
In Karr’s Aug. 6 response filed in court, she said March had cited no facts or details to back up his arguments connecting this case to Ferguson.
She also dismissed the timing between March’s lawsuit and the filing of the property damage charges: "Defendant's attempts to argue that a 'bogus' charge was only filed to protect the city of Hazelwood from civil liability ... is merely conclusory and he fails to provide any support for such."
"She's a predator at law. That's one person that should not be able to have access to our judicial system.”Phillip Marsh speaking on Hazelwood Prosecutor Stephanie Karr
Associate Circuit Judge Kelly Snyder denied March’s motion to disqualify Karr. But March maintains that Karr’s actions impugn Hazelwood’s attempts to hold him alone accountable for what happened more than three years ago.
He points to Karr’s description of the surveillance footage. In Karr’s telling, March is the only man at the scene.
“On the night in question,” she wrote, “defendant's vehicle appeared in the rear parking area of the Hazelwood City Hall/police station. After stopping, the vehicle then struck the building at a high rate of speed. After impact, defendant exits the driver's side of the vehicle.”
March, who is representing himself in the case, believes Karr tried lying to the court.
“She’s saying that she got a video of me getting out of the driver's seat of a car, which the video showed that I did not,” he said.
St. Louis Public Radio reached out to Karr by email last week. She was out of the office until Monday and directed questions about the case to St. Louis County prosecutor Matt Brown, who will be representing Hazelwood at trial next week. Brown declined to comment on the case.
Karr did not reply to a request for comment on this story and questions on the status of Block’s case.
March is now preparing for his trial next week, and he’s intent on proving he's not guilty. He doesn’t want to give Hazelwood the victory of a conviction of any kind.
“The end of this would be to get to where [Stephanie Karr] can't practice law in Missouri again,” he said. “She's a predator. She's a predator at law. That's one person that should not be able to have access to our judicial system.”
As for Block, March said he is trying to contact his former friend to call him as a witness in the upcoming trial.
March’s civil trial against Hazelwood — in which he’s seeking a total of $25 million in damages — is scheduled for February.
