WASHINGTON — U.S. District Judge Lydia K. Griggsby sentenced DeAngelo Lewis to 17 years in federal prison this week after a jury convicted him in April on charges of armed robbery of mail carriers, bank fraud, stealing mail and using and brandishing a firearm during a violent crime. Lewis, 30, of Washington, D.C. will serve three years of supervised release once his prison term ends, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland announced Thursday.
The scheme ran from January through October 2022. Lewis and his co-conspirators robbed seven U.S. Postal Service mail carriers at gunpoint while masked, hitting delivery routes across Washington, D.C. Maryland and Virginia. The group took USPS property from the carriers on the street, then used it to intercept checks from the mail, alter them and deposit the checks at banks.
Federal prosecutors said Lewis and his associates made at least 60 fraudulent deposits and stole nearly $1 million through that check-washing operation. When investigators searched Lewis's apartment in Marlow Heights, Maryland, they found five pieces of stolen USPS property, items used to alter checks and roughly 1,500 undeposited checks worth nearly $3 million — money the crew had not yet converted.
Data recovered from Lewis's phone showed he searched for post office locations before each robbery, using those lookups to identify carriers on active delivery routes. Cars Lewis was known to drive were recorded on video leaving the scenes of multiple robberies, prosecutors said.
Surveillance cameras inside the banks where the crew deposited altered checks led investigators to Lewis and his two co-conspirators: Marking Long, 24, of Washington, D.C. and Enrico Hood-Jackson, 32, of Upper Marlboro, Maryland. All three were arrested Oct. 27, 2022, in Potomac, Maryland, immediately after they had stolen from three public mail collection boxes. Officers found a sixth piece of stolen USPS property on them at the time of arrest.
Long and Hood-Jackson each previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and bank fraud. Hood-Jackson entered an additional guilty plea to armed robbery and carrying a firearm during a violent crime. Both are awaiting sentencing later this year, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Lewis did not take a plea deal. A federal jury convicted him following an eight-day trial in April. His conviction covered every charge prosecutors brought: armed robbery of postal carriers, bank fraud, mail theft and the firearms count, which under federal law carries a mandatory consecutive sentence added on top of the underlying crime.
The robberies targeted federal employees performing a public function and drew the involvement of multiple law enforcement agencies across three jurisdictions. USPS mail theft has drawn increased federal attention in recent years, with prosecutors in several districts pursuing charges under federal statutes that carry heavier penalties than state robbery laws.
The $3 million in undeposited checks found in Lewis's apartment illustrates the scale the crew was building toward before their October 2022 arrests cut the operation short. The nearly $1 million already stolen through 60 bank deposits represents what they successfully laundered before investigators closed in.
Hood-Jackson's guilty plea to the armed robbery and firearms charges means he faces a sentencing exposure that includes the same mandatory firearms enhancement that contributed to Lewis's 17-year term. The sentencing of Long and Hood-Jackson, expected before the end of 2026, will complete the prosecution of the trio.
