PORTLAND — Two men, one from New Jersey and one from New York, were charged Wednesday with federal crimes for the January robberies of two mail carriers in Lewiston and burglaries of post offices in Paris and North Monmouth, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Maine.
Winston McLeod, 30, of Orange, New Jersey, and Lance Funderburk, 30, of Brooklyn, New York, were arrested in Rumford on Jan. 20, hours after allegedly robbing two Lewiston mail carriers at knifepoint, according to court records supporting the charges.
The two are also accused of burglarizing the post office at 39 Tremont St. on Paris Hill in the late hours of Jan. 13 or early morning Jan. 14 and the post office at 140 North Main St. in North Monmouth two days later.
The charges brought by a federal grand jury are part of a five-count indictment for each man for two robberies, two burglaries and participation in a conspiracy for the crimes, the documents said.
Both men face up to 25 years in prison each on each robbery count, up to five years on each burglary count and up to five years on the conspiracy count. If convicted, they face up to five years of supervised release and fines of up to $250,000 on each count.
According to a Jan. 22 affidavit in support of an application for a criminal complaint, McLeod and Funderburk are accused of being behind the Lewiston knifepoint robberies of two postal carriers that occurred just minutes apart on Davis and Main streets in Lewiston on Jan. 20. The two men were arrested in a traffic stop later that day in Rumford by a local officer who recognized them from descriptions provided by the two Lewiston postal carriers.
McLeod’s and Funderburk’s Jan. 20 arrests immediately led to charges of criminal mischief, burglary, violation of condition of release and theft by unauthorized taking or transfer, all related to the Paris post office break-in.
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated the case with the help of FBI’s Safe Streets task force and Rumford, Paris, Monmouth and Lewiston police departments.
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