COLERAIN TOWNSHIP, Ohio — A man who pleaded guilty to robbing a postal service worker at gunpoint in Colerain Township has been sentenced to seven and a half years in federal prison.
Court documents show 19-year-old Lamarion Gray used a gun to rob a postal worker near Cliffside Drive on July 12, 2023. Gray stole the carrier's arrow key and vehicle key. Arrow keys provide access to bulk mail collectors before running away. Surveillance footage captured the robbery and showed Gray going to his girlfriend's home.
When inspectors executed a search warrant at Gray's residence, they found stolen mail — including several stolen checks.
Gray pleaded guilty to one count of robbery of U.S. property on March 1. His 90-month sentence includes five years of supervised release after he completes prison time. He also owes $14,176 in restitution to the victim.
Ahead of the sentencing, National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 43 President Ted Thompson gave a victim impact statement for the worker he said was still traumatized by the armed robbery more than a year later.
"It's been awhile since we started to get these crimes against letter carriers prosecuted in federal court, so I'm gratified that this is starting to happen," Thompson said.
Thompson said the long sentence was a message to letter carriers that they'd be protected and a message to would-be criminals that the court would hold them accountable.
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"If you're caught, and you're prosecuted, you are going to serve a long sentence in a federal penitentiary," Thompson said.
"This case is part of a series of mail thefts and bank frauds that have victimized the Greater Cincinnati area over the past few years," Kenneth L. Parker, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, said in a release. "Armed assault on a postal worker has a significant, negative impact on all letter carriers, and eventually on everyone in the community who relies on the U.S. Postal Service."
After Gray's guilty plea, Parker noted Gray was one of at least a dozen defendants charged in 2022 with crimes related to postal robberies and mail theft.
Thompson said stiff penalties in court would only be one arm of a larger effort to eliminate violence against postal workers that has begun to trend downward from a 2023 peak.
"The solution for these acts that are committed is multi-dimensional," he said.
In 2023, USPS began installing higher-security blue mailboxes across the country to combat increased robberies. Those collectors do not have a door where thieves can reach mail and have electronic locking mechanisms. USPS said in March they expect more of those collectors to be installed in "high postal crime areas" across all 50 states.
In 2024, U.S. Rep. Greg Landsman co-sponsored the Protect Our Letter Carriers Act of 2024 which proposes a $1.4 billion investment in electronic boxes as well as additional assistant prosecutors in every US district to focus on mail carrier crime.
"With an electronic key, it becomes almost impossible to get anything out of these letter carriers, so there's no incentive to attack them," Landsman said. "That's something we have to expedite."
The bi-partisan bill has more than 100 co-sponsors as of the end of July.
Thompson hoped to see it passed by the end of the year to speed up the replacement of the Greater Cincinnati area's arrow keys.
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