United States Attorney Joe Kelly announced that Gary Fellows, 45, was sentenced today in federal court in Omaha for his role in the armed robbery of a United States Postal Service tractor-trailer operator. In April, Fellows entered pleas of guilty to charges of Hobbs Act Robbery and Use of a Firearm in Furtherance of a Crime of Violence. Today the Honorable Laurie Smith Camp sentenced Fellows to 300 months’ imprisonment. There is no parole in the federal prison system. After serving his sentence, Fellows will began a five-year term of supervised release.

At 9:30 p.m. on December 14, 2018, while at the United States Post Office Distribution Center in Grand Island, Nebraska, a postal employee was approached by a masked man brandishing a handgun. The masked man forced the victim into the passenger seat of the victim’s tractor-trailer at gunpoint, covered the victim’s head, and bound his hands. Fellows then drove the tractor-trailer to a rest area off Interstate 80 where the men further restrained the victim and removed remittance bags from the trailer. They entered a pick-up truck and fled the scene. The loss to the United States Post Office from the robbery was $68,507.04. At the time of the robbery, Fellows was employed as a tractor-trailer operator for the United States Postal Service out of Omaha, Nebraska. Fellows has a prior federal court conviction for bank robbery.

“The sentencing today serves as yet another example of the unending dedication of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service to protect the employees of the United States Postal Service. When someone violently kidnaps and robs one of our employees, we stop at nothing to identify those responsible,” said Bill Hedrick, Inspector in Charge of the Denver Division of the United States Postal Inspection Service, which covers Nebraska. “We are proud of the work done by the Postal Inspectors and our law enforcement partners, U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General, Nebraska State Patrol, Grand Island Police Department, Hall County Sheriff’s Department and the United States Attorney’s Office, to bring these perpetrators to justice.”

Co-defendants, Sidney Britt and Joshua Britt, are scheduled to be sentenced on November 18, 2019, for their roles in the robbery.

This case was investigated by Bryce Husak of the Postal Inspection Service, the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General, the Nebraska State Patrol, the Hall County Sheriff’s Office, and the Grand Island Police Department.