MOBILE, Ala. — A former postal worker pleaded guilty Tuesday to stealing drugs from a package at the Midtown Mobile post office.
According to Sean Golston’s written plea agreement, he was working at the post office in April when a co-worker saw him remove a parcel from a car and put it into a large black bag.
A postal inspector later found that bag in Golston’s pickup truck. It contained about two pounds of suspected marijuana.
The search turned up more. According to the plea document, the back seat of Golston’s vehicle contained another bag of suspected marijuana, and inside the center console were 29 grams of trazodone, a prescription antidepressant.
What Golston Admitted
Golston admitted that he took a parcel from a cart and put it into a black bag. He told the postal inspector that he put the bag in his car and threw the box in the trash.
Surveillance video later confirmed the account, according to his plea document.
That sequence — a co-worker’s observation, an inspector’s search, a statement from the employee, and video that matches it — is a conventional structure for a case that resolves by plea rather than trial. When the physical evidence, the defendant’s own statement and the video all align, there is little left for a jury to weigh.
Who Investigates Mail Theft
Cases like this one are worked by the United States Postal Inspection Service, the federal law enforcement arm of the Postal Service.
Postal inspectors are federal agents with authority to carry firearms, make arrests and execute search warrants. Their jurisdiction covers crimes involving the mail system, including theft by employees, mail fraud and the use of the mail to move contraband.
Internal theft cases occupy a particular place in that work. The Postal Service handles an enormous volume of parcels on a system that depends fundamentally on employee integrity — there is no practical way to individually secure every item moving through a facility. Employee theft is therefore investigated aggressively, and it is prosecuted federally rather than in state court, because the mail itself is federal.
The Charge and the Sentence Exposure
Theft of mail matter by an employee carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
Prosecutors, however, agreed to recommend the minimum sentence set forth under the advisory guidelines.
That distinction is where most federal sentencing actually happens, and it is frequently misread. The five-year figure is a statutory ceiling — the most a court could impose. The federal sentencing guidelines produce a calculated range based on the specifics of the offense and the defendant’s criminal history, and that range is typically well below the statutory maximum for an offense of this kind.
The guidelines are advisory rather than binding. A judge must calculate the range and consider it, but retains discretion to sentence above or below it after weighing the statutory sentencing factors.
A prosecutor’s agreement to recommend a particular sentence is also not a guarantee. The recommendation carries weight, but the sentence is the judge’s to impose.
Why the Drugs Complicate the Picture
The quantities described in the plea document are not incidental to how a sentence gets calculated.
Roughly two pounds of suspected marijuana in one bag, an additional bag in the back seat, and 29 grams of trazodone in the console together describe something beyond a single opportunistic theft. Under the guidelines, factors such as the value or nature of what was taken can affect the calculated range even when the charge of conviction is the theft itself.
Trazodone is a prescription antidepressant. Its presence in a vehicle alongside suspected marijuana does not by itself establish an additional offense, and the plea document describes it as part of what the inspector found rather than as the basis of a separate charge.
What Happens Next
A judge set Golston’s sentencing for December.
Between now and then, the probation office will prepare a presentence investigation report — the document that drives federal sentencing. It compiles the offense conduct, the defendant’s history and background, and a proposed guidelines calculation. Both sides may object to portions of it, and the judge resolves those disputes before imposing a sentence.
South Alabama News will report the outcome when Golston is sentenced.