A South Carolina man will begin serving a life sentence in prison after killing a U.S. Postal Service worker over marijuana.
Trevor Raekwon Seward, 25, was sentenced Thursday in the 2019 killing of mail carrier Irene Pressley, according to Fox News.
Seward confronted Pressley in rural Williamsburg County after the Pressley left a note in his mailbox indicating he’d have to pick up a two-pound package at the local post office, according to a Justice Department news release. The package contained marijuana Seward was waiting for.
Shortly after Pressley left the note, Seward found her and demanded she give him the package, according to The Associated Press, which cited court documents. Pressley refused, the AP reported.
With assistance from co-defendant Jerome Terrell Davis, Seward then lay in wait for Pressley while armed with an AR-15 rifle as the mail carrier drove her route.
Pressley was fatally shot in a hail of gunfire through the back of her vehicle, with Seward firing approximately 20 rounds at the 64-year-old mail carrier.
Seward went on to drive Pressley’s postal vehicle three miles away from the site of the shooting, searching through the packages within in a bid to find his package.
The killer abandoned the vehicle and Pressley’s body in a ditch near an entrance to a hunt club.
The package of marijuana was actually found on the road were Pressley was originally shot, according to the DOJ news release.
Seward was arrested the same day as Pressley’s funeral, CNN reported in 2019.
Seward’s life sentence included 20 years in federal prison in connection to his crimes.
“He gave up, because you took his daughter’s life,” she told Seward.
As Seward targeted a federal employee in the performance of her duties, the federal government has jurisdiction over his case.
Davis also received a 25-year sentence for robbery and conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute marijuana.
Approximately 3 in 10 users of marijuana will develop marijuana use disorder, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
One study linked higher rates of schizophrenia to young men with the disorder.