ALBUQUERQUE – A former Lobo football player was convicted by a federal jury, after less than two hours of deliberation, robbing a postal carrier, stealing an arrow key belonging to the United States Postal Service, and being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm.
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, on January 18, 2022, Rashawn Boyce, 28, of Albuquerque, and his co-defendant, Marquae Kirkendoll, 23, of Chicago, Illinois, approached a mail carrier while he was sitting in his truck near Louisiana and Central, pulled him out of his truck slammed him on the ground. The mail carrier testified that each suspect put a pistol to his head and demanded his keys. The mail carrier handed over his keys before a neighbor who witnessed the altercation intervened, but Boyce and Kirkendoll ran back to their car and took off.
The mail carrier was injured in the attack and feared for his life.
Following the attack, investigators from the U.S. Postal Inspectors Service received an anonymous tip leading them to Boyce. Investigators surveilled Boyce for several days while investigating him and eventually executed a search warrant on Boyce’s apartment. There they found the clothing Boyce could be seen wearing in video of the attack. A revolver, and two semiautomatic guns were seized.
During a subsequent interview, Boyce named Kirkendoll as his accomplice. Kirkendoll pled guilty in federal court to conspiracy and faces not more than 20 years in prison at sentencing.
The Court ordered that Boyce remain in detention pending sentencing, which has not been scheduled. At sentencing, Boyce faces up to ten years in prison followed by three years of supervised release.
There is no parole in the federal system.
Boyce is also under indictment for trafficking methamphetamine into the Cibola County Correctional Center in May 2022, while being held on the robbery case. The trial for those charges is scheduled for later this year.
U.S. Attorney Alexander M.M. Uballez and Glen Henderson, Inspector in Charge of the Phoenix Division of the Postal Inspection Service, made the announcement today.
The United States Postal Inspection Service investigated this case with assistance from Homeland Security Investigations. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Letitia Carroll Simms and Joseph Spindle prosecuted the case.