Return to Sender: South Carolina Man Who Murdered Mail Carrier over Marijuana Sentenced to Life in Prison

This booking photo provided by Williamsburg County Sheriff's Office shows Trevor Raek
Williamsburg County Sheriff's Office via AP

The man who killed a South Carolina mail carrier after she did not deliver marijuana to his home was sentenced to life in prison Thursday.

Instead of leaving the marijuana package, the mail carrier left the man a note for him to claim it at a post office, the Associated Press (AP) reported Friday.

Twenty-five-year-old Trevor Raekwon Seward was found guilty of murdering the federal worker, among other crimes he committed in the 2019 incident, the outlet said.

The victim in the case, 64-year-old Irene Presley, was delivering mail in Williamsburg County when the shooting took place, according to federal prosecutors.

Images show the victim and shooter:

Irene Pressley was delivering mail along her route in Andrews, South Carolina, in 2019, when she was gunned down by two…

Posted by WPDE ABC15 on Thursday, June 22, 2023

The AP report continued:

After finding the note in his mailbox instead of the 2-pound (0.9-kilogram) 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.

Multiple bullets struck the woman, and Seward then got into the mail truck and drove it into a ditch before looking through its contents to find the pot and other valuables the truck might have contained.

He eventually abandoned Pressley’s body inside the vehicle.

Court records state the package of weed was discovered on the street where the killing happened.

Video footage from 2019 shows law enforcement working the scene:

In January, a jury found Seward guilty of first-degree murder, use of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence constituting murder, robbery, felon in possession of a firearm or ammunition and drug conspiracy, WPDE reported Thursday.

During a hearing, Pressley’s sister, Vernelle Gibson Oates, said she had spoken with her sister about retirement not long before the shooting occurred.

She then addressed Seward and asked the man, “What did it profit you to take her life? It didn’t profit you nothing. Why did you take my sister’s life? She was innocent. She was innocent.”

The co-defendant in the case who aided Seward in searching for the mail carrier received 25 years behind bars, the AP report noted.

“Jerome Terrell Davis, 31, pleaded guilty to robbery and conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute marijuana, prosecutors said,” the outlet continued, adding the marijuana’s value at the time was minimal.

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.