A Missouri man once entrusted with protecting and serving his community as a firefighter has now effectively admitted that public trust was misplaced after he pleaded guilty to charges related to stealing a wallet from the victim of a deadly car crash.

The circumstances surrounding the crash are both heartbreaking and infuriating.

Around 1:30 in the morning on Feb. 26, 2023, Cedric Dixon, then 34, blew a red light and struck a Chevy Tahoe carrying eight passengers — all of whom were under the age of 21 — in St. Louis. The force of the impact sent the Tahoe over a guardrail before it crashed upside down on the street below.

He had just celebrated his 18th birthday, and his wallet contained $200 worth of gift cards and nearly $700 in cash as well as credit and debit cards.

Four young people — 20-year-old Corntrail McKinley, 19-year-old Anthony Robinson, 19-year-old Richard Boyd, and 18-year-old Bryanna Johnson — died as a result of the crash, and four others were injured.

One of the injured was Seven Robinson-Laney. He suffered broken bones, a concussion, and a back injury. While he awaited transport to a hospital, a first responder who he assumed was a police officer approached him.

The first responder asked for Robinson-Laney's wallet on the pretense of checking for identification. The young man produced his wallet and handed it over. The official returned Robinson-Laney's ID almost immediately but slipped the wallet into his jacket, bodycam video later showed.

About two weeks later, when Robinson-Laney recovered enough to begin thinking clearly, he recalled that he never got his wallet back. He had just celebrated his 18th birthday, and his wallet contained $200 in gift cards and nearly $700 in cash as well as credit and debit cards.

Robinson-Laney reported the incident to police, who later identified the individual who interacted with Robinson-Laney: Arnold Britt, a former wide receiver for the University of Missouri who had spent the last nine years working as a firefighter in St. Louis.

Britt initially claimed he mistook the debit card as his wife's since it had been issued by the same bank. He then used the debit card to make about $120 in purchases. Whether he ever offered an explanation for the missing cash and gift cards is unclear.

The fire department placed Britt on administrative leave, but then-St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner — one of several district attorneys affiliated with George Soros — declined to prosecute him, so Britt was allowed to return to his duties.

However, since Britt made the debit card purchases in St. Louis County rather than the city, County Prosecutor Christopher King eventually charged him in connection with those transactions.

On Monday, Britt, now 41, pleaded guilty to felony receiving stolen property and misdemeanor fraudulent use of a credit/debit device. Britt's sentencing hearing is scheduled for early September.

Though Britt has no prior criminal record, prosecutors reportedly want to deter other public servants from committing similar violations and are pushing for concurrent sentences of five years in prison for the stolen property and one year for the debit card fraud.

The fire department has since issued a statement claiming that Britt is "no longer a member."

Robinson-Laney didn't appear convinced the incident was just an honest mistake: "Everything he did was, like, this is not his first time doing this. It was just, like, this is what he does."

"It's hurtful," he continued. "It wasn't just an accident; it was the deaths of youth. You took from people that could have been dead."

Cedric Dixon, the driver of the vehicle that caused the crash that killed four of Robinson-Laney's friends, also was prosecuted. He ultimately pleaded guilty to four counts of involuntary manslaughter, four counts of second-degree assault, and one count of leaving the scene of a crash. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

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