Russell Marcoulier

Prosecutors said Elijah Daniel Curtis shot 63-year-old Russell Marcoulier in the presence of three children, ages 3, 5 and 6. The shooting happened after Curtis thought Marcoulier stole $20 from his wallet. Marcoulier was shot in the chest on the afternoon of Nov. 1 inside a home in the 7100 block of Alabama Avenue. Curtis and Marcoulier were not related, police said. They were both staying at the property. Marcoulier had been homeless for a time, living out of an old RV. He served a brief stint in the Army, and ended up living at the home on Alabama as part of a Veterans Administration benefit, said Katherine Barnes of De Soto, Marcoulier’s older sister. Marcoulier’s RV was parked on the lot, and he invited a homeless man to pitch a tent in the backyard, Barnes said. He apparently let friends stay with him in the past who were battling addiction and had financial struggles. Curtis accused Marcoulier of taking $20 from his wallet; several witnesses, including the children, heard the accusation, police said. Barnes said the children who witnessed the crime were not related to her brother. Curtis became “enraged” about the missing money, grabbed a pistol from the living room closet and shot Marcoulier, St. Louis police Officer Scott Paiva said in court papers. Curtis did not have an attorney listed in online court records Thursday. The St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office also charged Curtis with unlawful possession of a firearm and armed criminal action. Curtis was convicted in 2024 in Jefferson County of unlawful use of a weapon. In that case, he fired eight shots at a shed behind his mother’s house. He had been drinking alcohol that night, his birthday. Some of the shots went through the shed and hit a neighbor’s home. Shattered glass struck a woman sitting at a vanity to put on makeup. Curtis pleaded guilty and was given a four-year prison sentence. However, the judge then suspended execution of that sentence and placed Curtis on probation for five years instead. According to Marcoulier’s obituary, he was born to a military family stationed in France. “Russ was happiest when he was building, fixing, or rehabbing something,” the obit said. Marcoulier was attending a non-denominational church at the time of his death, but was saved in the Baptist church in the late 1990s, Barnes said. His survivors include three children and a grandson. Curtis' charges include first-degree murder and three counts of endangering the welfare of a child