(St. Paul, MN) -- A St. Paul man was sentenced Wednesday to 18 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for assaulting and attempting to rob a postal employee.
According to court documents, on June 4th, 2020, 23-year-old James Wilbert Jackson, Jr. tried to pick up a package from a post office located in Oakdale, Minnesota, but the postal employee was not authorized to give Jackson the package because his name and address did not match the recipient or sender address on the package.
Jackson left the post office and returned multiple times that same day, each time trying to convince the postal employee to give him the package. Shortly before the post office closed for the day, Jackson returned and again demanded the package. When the employee walked away, Jackson leaped over the service counter, followed the employee into the back office, and punched the employee repeatedly in the head.
The two struggled and fell to the ground before postal employees were able to restrain Jackson. As a result of the assault, the employee suffered scrapes, abrasions, and bruises to his head and knees, as well as a badly broken finger that required surgery to repair. A subsequent search of the package Jackson was trying to retrieve showed that it contained approximately 500 grams of marijuana.
“This defendant attacked an innocent U.S. Postal Service employee, a public servant, who was simply doing his job,” said Acting U.S. Attorney W. Anders Folk. “Postal workers are frontline employees who serve the public during challenging times, particularly throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and they deserve to be safe and free from violence as they carry out their duties.”