20-year-old Jennings man sentenced for robbing U.S. postal workers at gunpoint

ST. LOUIS - A U.S. District Judge sentenced a man from Jennings to 21 years in prison for robbing three U.S. Postal Service carriers at gunpoint.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Eastern District of Missouri, Xavier Sean Boyd, 20, was just one of five suspects involved in a conspiracy to rob the postal workers in the summer of 2022.

Boyd, along with four others, robbed the postal carriers of their arrow keys to unlock mail collection boxes and steal checks to commit fraud.

Reportedly, Boyd robbed a postal carrier at gunpoint on June 1, 2022, on Chambers Road in St. Louis County. Boyd and the four others used the postal carrier's arrow key to steal mail from collection boxes in Berkeley, West Florissant, Normandy, Overland, and Ferguson.

Boyd and another suspect, Roy Lee Jones, 22, obtained $19,199 in stolen checks and deposited them into Jones's credit union account on June 7, 2022. The following day, when they tried to withdraw the entire amount, they were only able to obtain $8,500.

After depositing checks into Boyd's bank account, they were not able to withdraw any of the stolen funds.

Two days later, Jones and Boyd robbed two additional postal workers while driving Boyd's mother's SUV.

One of the postal workers noted the license plate, and police spotted the vehicle within minutes. When Boyd initially pulled over for the officers but then sped away, leading to a high-speed police pursuit that ended when Boyd crashed.

Both Boyd and Jones fled one foot with pistols, but police tackled and arrested both men.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Boyd had just graduated from a prestigious local high school and had at least one college acceptance at the time.

In September, Boyd pleaded guilty to three counts of robbery and two counts of possession and brandishing a firearm in the furtherance of a robbery.

Jones was sentenced to 84 months in prison after pleading guilty in August to one count of robery, one count of theft of a mail key, and one count of possession and brandishing of a firearm in the furthance of a robbery.