Woman sentenced for trying to burn store during 2020 protest

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A woman was sentenced Tuesday to more than two years in prison for trying to set fire to a 7-Eleven store in St. Louis during a 2020 protest that followed the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Nautica Turner, 27, pleaded guilty in February to a federal charge of conspiracy to commit arson. She was sentenced in U.S. District Court in St. Louis.

Federal prosecutors say that on June 1, 2020, Turner poured lighter fluid to start a fire at a 7-Eleven store in the downtown area of St. Louis. She first tried to light a cardboard box, and when that failed tried to light a fire in a trash bin outside the store, according to her plea agreement.

The trash can fire also failed, but someone else later started a fire that burned the convenience store to the ground.

The fire occurred on a violent night of protests that followed Floyd’s death on May 25, 2020.

In September, Justin Cannamore of St. Louis County was sentenced to three years in prison in connection with the fire. Prosecutors said he demonstrated a technique using lighter fluid to better burn the convenience store.