2 Columbus men sentenced to prison for their roles in armed robberies of postal carriers
Two Columbus men are the latest to have been sentenced in U.S. District Court for being accomplices in the armed robberies of U.S. Postal Service mail carriers.
Cody N. Beasley, 23, also known as "Drose," was sentenced Monday to six years and three months in prison, while Kenan M. Lay, 21, also known as "Swerv," was sentenced April 19 to 5½ years, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Ohio in Columbus.
Federal prosecutors stated in court documents that on May 11, 2023, Lay provided a handgun to Mahad S. Jama, of Westerville, and Da'mon D. May, of Columbus, which the pair used to rob and pistol whip an elderly female postal worker at a post office on West Broad Street. Jama and May paid Lay $100 to use his gun for the crime, and updated Lay throughout the progress of the robbery, according to court records.
On April 4, 2023, Beasley orchestrated and paid $500 to Jama and May to rob another Postal Service letter carrier at gunpoint while the worker was sitting in his work vehicle on Sawmill Road in Dublin, prosecutors said.
Jama and May have been convicted for the April 2023 robbery in Dublin.
Beasley also admitted to stealing a postal "arrow" or universal master key to blue USPS street mailboxes in March 2023 while in the Cleveland area. Federal prosecutors say thieves want the arrow keys so they can steal mail, including checks and money orders.
Beasley and another co-conspirator were pulled over in Parma Heights in Cuyahoga County and fled from police. Police officers eventually caught and detained the two men. A search of their vehicle turned up a black trash bag filled with mail. Through a search of their cellphones, officers also discovered pictures of stolen checks and research of more than three dozen post offices and USPS collection boxes in Cleveland, prosecutors said.
While Beasley and his co-defendant were in jail together, prosecutors said they began plotting for the postal robbery in Dublin.
Others charged in postal carrier robberies since 2022
Lay and Beasley are among the latest who have been charged and/or sentenced to prison in for such robberies of USPS carriers in central Ohio in the past few years. Among others:
Brandon J. Campbell, 23, of Columbus, was sentenced to more than six years in prison in August 2022 for robbing two postal carriers of arrow keys at gunpoint in September 2021, one at Vistas at Rocky Fork Apartment Complex in Gahanna and the other near 4500 Hemingway Court in Columbus.
Theirno S. Bah, 20, of Columbus, has admitted to robbing postal carriers on four different occasions from December 2022 to May 2023. His co-defendant, Cameron D. Newton, 20, of Westerville, was also part of the plots and regularly acted as a lookout while Bah committed the armed robberies. Their cases remain pending.
In January, Anthony Williams, of Columbus, was arrested in Pittsburgh after a federal grand jury indicted him on charges in connection with the armed robberies of two U.S. Postal Service carriers in 2022 in the Columbus area. Prosecutors allege that Williams threatened a USPS mail carrier with a gun to get an arrow key on Nov. 9, 2022, on Michigan Avenue in Columbus.
@ShahidMeighan
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: 2 Columbus men sentenced to prison for postal carrier robberies
