A Boston woman has been sentenced to three years in federal prison for her involvement in armed robberies targeting United States Postal Service (USPS) letter carriers. Myesha Lewis, 22, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Chief Judge Dennis F. Saylor IV and will also serve three years of supervised release following her prison term. In October 2024, Lewis pleaded guilty to charges related to the robbery of mail matter and assaulting postal employees.
The incidents occurred on November 29, 2022, in Mattapan, Massachusetts, and December 16, 2022, in Hyde Park, Massachusetts. During these robberies, Lewis and co-defendant Kenneth Demosthene forcibly took arrow keys from USPS letter carriers. Arrow keys are used to open specific USPS collection boxes and their unauthorized possession is a federal offense.
According to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service headquarters data, there has been a significant rise in arrow key thefts nationwide from 2019 through 2023. The number of such robberies increased from 64 in 2019 to approximately 412 in 2022. By 2023, the figure had risen further to 605 robberies—a nearly 49% increase over the previous year.
During the Mattapan robbery on November 29, Demosthene approached a letter carrier demanding their master key before forcibly taking it with Lewis's assistance. The force used caused physical harm as the carrier was pulled off steps during the theft. On December 16 in Hyde Park, they repeated this crime at knife point against another letter carrier.
Demosthene received an identical sentence of three years imprisonment followed by supervised release for his role in these crimes.
United States Attorney Leah B. Foley and Ketty Larco-Ward from the United States Postal Inspection Service’s Boston Field Office announced these developments today with assistance from the U.S. Postal Service's Office of Inspector General involved throughout this case's prosecution led by Assistant U.S Attorney Luke A Goldworm of Major Crimes Unit.