A man has been handed a life sentence for fatally attacking a mail carrier who did not deliver a large marijuana package to his home. Instead, she left a note requiring him to pick it up from a local post office in South Carolina.
25-year-old Trevor Raekwon Seward was found guilty on Thursday for murdering a federal employee on duty, along with other charges. The incident occurred back in September 2019, when 64-year-old Irene Pressley was on her mail delivery route in a rural area of Williamsburg County.
Seward was expecting a package containing a two-pound stash of marijuana from California. Upon finding the note instead of his anticipated delivery, he confronted Pressley, demanding the package. Pressley, adhering to her duty as a mail carrier, refused to comply, as per court documents.
Enraged, Seward armed himself with a semi-automatic rifle and lay in wait for Pressley to make her rounds on a street in Andrews. In a horrifying act, he fired around 20 shots into the back of her mail truck.
Pressley was hit by several bullets. Seward then commandeered her truck, running it into a ditch on a hunting club access road. He rummaged through the mail for his package and anything else of value before leaving Pressley’s body behind in the truck.
Later, the marijuana package was discovered on the very street where Pressley was attacked.
At the sentencing hearing, Pressley’s family spoke heartbreakingly of their loss. Her sister, Elisha Hubbard, said their 97-year-old father passed away from the grief of losing his daughter.
When given the opportunity to speak, Seward chose to remain silent, stating he didn’t want to add to the confusion.
A co-conspirator, 31-year-old Jerome Terrell Davis, who helped Seward locate the mail carrier, received a sentence of 25 years. He pled guilty to robbery and conspiracy to possess, distribute, and intent to distribute marijuana.
Ironically, the cost of the marijuana in the package was modest. Had it been purchased in Colorado, where it’s legal, the cost would have been around $1,600. Even during times when marijuana was illegal across the nation, the value of such a package would not have surpassed $2,600 in South Carolina, according to data from 2000.