A 27 year old woman will be in federal prison until she's 47 for her participation in a bizarre scheme to steal mail, which led to a Spring Branch Postal carrier being shot, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Sarah Richford was sentenced to 20 years by U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia, the same sentenced meted out to her partner in the hare-brained scheme, Bradley Ahearn, 24.
Prosecutors say Richford was part of a bungling gang that was trying to steal mail from mailboxes in an attempt to steal identities and IRS refund checks in February of last year.
In Spring Branch, while they were taking mail out of boxes, the pair shot a woman as she was delivering mail, stealing her vehicle and leaving the mail carrier with permanent, crippling wounds.
The pair and a third defendant then led police on a wild chase down Highway 281 on the north side in which shots were fired. They shot holes in the windows of a restaurant at Loop 410 and Broadway, and prompted a lockdown of North Star Mall when they drove into the mall's parking garage.
Two days later, San Antonio Police arrested Richford, Ahearn, and a third suspect, Piper Lee, 41, in the parking lot of a seedy south side motel.
Inside the motel room, investigators found stacks of stolen mail.
Lee has been in custody since his arrest, and he also faces twenty years when he is sentenced later this year.