Inset left to right: Kaprise Sledge and Thomas Sledge (Warren Police Department). Background: The area where the Sledges shot and killed a letter carrier in Warren, Ohio (Google Maps).
An Ohio father and son face significant time behind bars for killing an on-duty letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service (USPS).
Late last week, Kaprise Sledge, 24, and Thomas Sledge, 44, were convicted by a federal jury of one count each of murdering a federal officer or employee and using a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence over the March 2024 death of 33-year-old Jont’e Davis.
The incident occurred when the victim was delivering mail along the 600 block of Olive Avenue North East in Warren, a medium-sized city located roughly 55 miles due east of Cleveland.
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On the day in question, the letter carrier was struck by gunfire coming from a gray Dodge Ram that sidled right up next to his parked mail Grumman LLV, the typical mail delivery truck used by the USPS.
After the shooting, a witness called 911 and identified the pickup truck used in the attack, according to a press release issued by the Department of Justice. Then, using surveillance footage from multiple buildings as well as cellphone records, investigators were able to determine the Dodge Ram had stalked the mail truck for approximately an hour and a half before the shots rang out.
Authorities determined the Dodge Ram was registered to Kaprise Sledge, according to evidence presented to the jury during trial. During the execution of a search warrant at the son’s residence, investigators allegedly discovered “evidence of drug trafficking.”
An investigator with the USPS Inspection Service told the jury that he drew up some of the search warrants used in the investigation almost immediately after Davis was killed, according to a courtroom report by Youngstown-based CBS affiliate WKBN.
The investigator testified that the gray truck was known to belong to the younger Sledge and was later found parked behind a house on Maryland Street North East, roughly a mile north of the shooting.
The federal agent went on to show jurors an image culled from drone footage that showed the Dodge Ram parked in the backyard near the back door of the residence and away from the view of the street.
The inspector also said that both Sledges were placed at the scene of the crime using their cellphone location data. A second postal inspector testified that authorities were able to track the victim’s own movements by way of the so-called “bread crumbs” left by the device Davis used to scan delivered mail, according to the TV station.
Other data obtained from the mail scanner showed that Davis delivered a package weighing some 15 pounds to a nearby residence the day before he was killed. That residence, as it turns out, was owned by Kaprise Sledge — though the package was not addressed to him. The return address for the package was from California and is said to be connected with mail-order marijuana deliveries.
Under cross-examination from the defense, the second inspector conceded he did not know what was in that 15-pound package.
Defense attorneys also raised concerns about the reliability of the so-called “Timing and Advance” process used to place both defendants at the crime scene. One defense attorney said this was the first-ever instance of the process being used in a federal criminal trial. The government, however, countered that the process has been used in hundreds of nonfederal cases, including 16 this year, WKBN reported.
In the end, the jury sided with the government.
The trial was overseen by U.S. District Judge Donald Nugent. The defendants are currently slated to be sentenced on Dec. 10.
The post Father and son convicted for stalking postal worker for over an hour and then gunning him down while he sat in mail truck first appeared on Law & Crime.
