By Logan Smith
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AURORA, Colorado (KCNC) — Three men who jumped a postal service employee while she sat in her delivery truck during her lunch break in an Aurora park two years ago have now been imprisoned.
The last of the trio was sentenced Oct. 1. Elijah Woods received a 27-month term. He was 21 years old at the time of the incident.
Dravell Ross, then 27, was the getaway driver, according to case documents. He was sentenced three months ago to four years in federal prison.
Marquis Taylor, also 27 at the time, was sentenced last year to 46 months.
mail-carrier-robbery-suspects-combo-for-web.png Three suspects in the September 2023 assault and robbery of a mail carrier in Aurora are seen in images distributed by the U.S. Postal Service. One of the men was arrested hours later. The USPS offered a $150,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the other two. All three are now serving federal prison sentences. U.S. Postal Service The three assaulted and robbed the mail carrier on Sept.1, 2023. The woman, identified only as “D.B.” in court documents, was seated in her delivery truck at Utah Park. Woods and Taylor, unarmed, forced their way into the truck and demanded arow keys from the mail carrier.
Arrow keys are universal keys which access multiple residential mailboxes at the same time, usually at apartment buildings or similar residential complexes.
“Such ‘arrow keys’ are currently in high demand on the street and are frequently sought after by criminals involved in mail theft and related criminal activity,” prosecutors stated in a Woods case document.
The two men failed to acquire any arrow keys. But, they did punch and “rough up” the mail carrier, and did take a key to the delivery truck, a package scanner, letters, and packages. Woods and Taylor returned to a black Mercedes positioned nearby – which was driven by Ross.
The Mercedes sped off and, according to Woods’s plea agreement, the three men went to Ross’s girlfriend’s home a half mile away.
Postal service investigators who responded to the scene collected surveillance cameras from homes surrounding Utah Park. Those images, per the prosecutors’ description, showed both Woods and Taylor walking in the direction of the delivery truck five minutes before the robbery. Other cameras located Ross actively positioning the Mercedes on a nearby street. The post-robbery walk back to the car was also recorded.
Investigators, tipped off by the registration of Mercedes (which was Ross’s personal vehicle) and a GPS tracker inside the stolen package scanner, arrested Ross at his girlfriend’s house later that evening. All the stolen items were in his bedroom. His fingerprints were found by the lab testing on several of them.
The other two men were implicated by communications obtained from Ross’s cell phone.
Woods was arrested a month later. Taylor remained on the run until he was caught in November of 2024, four months after Ross, the first of the three to be prosecuted, began serving his prison sentence.
“Today’s sentencing is a message to those who contemplate perpetrating senseless and traumatizing acts of violence against U.S. Postal Service employees,” stated Inspector in Charge Bryan Musgrove of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service after Taylor’s sentencing. “Robberies of our employees are a top investigative priority for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.”
Woods may have received a shorter sentence than the other two men, but the judge ordered additional guidelines during his incarceration and the three years of post-prison probation. Those terms include drug rehab programs, drug testing, mental health treatment, and no contact with gangs or gang members.
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