A New Jersey man will spend more than four years behind bars for burglarizing two Maine post offices and robbing two letter carriers at knifepoint.
A judge sentenced 31-year-old Winston McLeod on Wednesday to 57 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. He pleaded guilty in July.
According to court records, McLeod and 31-year-old Lance Funderburk, also from New Jersey, broke into post offices in Paris and North Monmouth during a one-week period in January 2024 and stole money order printers, mail, computers, post office box keys and other items.
Authorities say the two men then robbed two Lewiston postal carriers on Jan. 20, threatening to stab each of them with a knife unless they turned over their postal keys.
The two men were arrested by police following a traffic stop. According to police, their vehicle, a white Jeep, matched a vehicle seen in videos from each crime scene.
Police say they found a black butterfly knife, black ski mask, large sums of cash and several checks determined to have been stolen from the Paris post office after searching the vehicle.
When responding to the Paris location, Postal inspectors say they also found two iPhones in the snow directly beneath the broken window used to access the post office.
Investigators were able to identify McLeod through a photo of him on the lockscreen of one of the phones.
Police say they also found other stolen items at and near the address where the two men had been staying.
Funderburk pleaded guilty in October. He has not been sentenced yet.
