Man gets life sentence for killing mail carrier who refused to deliver marijuana package

A mail box is propped open using binder clips in Quebec. (Courtesy of Robert Chagnon)

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A man was sentenced to life in prison Thursday after being convicted of killing a mail carrier who instead of delivering a large package of marijuana to his home left a note in the mailbox requiring him to come to a South Carolina post office to pick it up.

Trevor Raekwon Seward, 25, was found guilty of murder of a federal employee in the course of her duties and other crimes in the September 2019 shooting of 64-year-old Irene Pressley as she delivered mail in rural Williamsburg County, federal prosecutors said.

After finding the note in his mailbox instead of the 2-pound package of marijuana from California he was expecting, Seward confronted Pressley a few minutes later demanding his package. The U.S. Postal Service mail carrier refused, according to court documents.

Seward then got a semi-automatic rifle and waited for Pressley to come down a street in Andrews, firing about 20 times into the back of her mail truck, prosecutors said.

Several bullets hit Pressley. Seward then drove the mail truck into a ditch on an access road at a hunting club, searched through it to try to find his marijuana and anything else valuable, and then left the Pressley's body in her truck, prosecutors said.

The marijuana package was later found on the street where Pressley was killed, according to court records.

In court, Pressley's sister blamed Seward for the death of 97-year-old father.

"He gave up, because you took his daughter's life," Elisha Hubbard said according to WPDE-TV, during Thursday's sentencing hearing, adding that he loved the treats that Irene Pressley would bring him every day.

Seward listened carefully to Pressley's family as they spoke at the hearing and stood up when the judge asked him if he wanted to speak.

Seward then said he didn't "want to cause any more confusion. I don't have anything to say, " the TV station reported.

The co-defendant who helped Seward look for the mail carrier was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Jerome Terrell Davis, 31, pleaded guilty to robbery and conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute marijuana, prosecutors said.

The value of the marijuana in the package was minimal.

At the time of the murder it would have cost around $1,600 in Colorado, where it was legal, according to state revenue data. Even when marijuana was illegal nationwide, the value of the package would not have exceeded $2,600, according to National Drug Intelligence Center data about South Carolina in 2000.