INDIANAPOLIS — An Indianapolis man will serve more than six years in federal prison after pleading guilty to carjacking a mail truck at gunpoint.
Robert Powell, 23, was sentenced to 79 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release.
“Letter carriers should not have to live in fear of gun violence simply for doing their jobs,” said John E. Childress, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana. “Americans should not have to fear that their important financial documents will be stolen and exploited by fraudsters who wreak financial havoc.”
Court documents detailed how Powell jumped a United States Postal Service worker in an Avon apartment complex on the morning of June 15, 2022. Powell was wearing a mask when he approached the postal worker and ordered them out of the mail truck at gunpoint.
Powell sped off in the stolen mail truck and met up with an accomplice. The pair offloaded stolen letters and parcels into a waiting car before ditching the mail truck and fleeing the scene. A second postal worker witnessed the offloading, according to court documents, having followed the stolen mail truck.
An investigation into Powell uncovered he took part in a fraud scheme that involved obtaining stolen checks and depositing them into accounts before quickly withdrawing the funds.
“This criminal chose to threaten the life of a letter carrier at gun point, engaging in gun violence to facilitate the fraud scheme he perpetrated against countless victims. Fortunately, the letter carrier was not physically harmed, but the lasting trauma he inflicted is palpable,” Childress said.
The investigation and arrest of Powell was spearheaded by the U.S. Postal Inspection Servive and the Avon Police Departmnet.
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