Sacramento County Man Pleads Guilty to Armed Robbery and Bank Fraud

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Damian Deleal, 33, of Carmichael, pleaded guilty Thursday to armed robbery of a U.S. mail carrier and bank fraud, Acting U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.

According to court documents, in March 2018, Deleal conspired with others, including Jacey Powell to rob a U.S. mail carrier of a postal service key that could open numerous residential cluster mailboxes in Sacramento County. Deleal conspired to obtain the key so he and his co-conspirators – including Jacey Powell, Brandon Moses, and Loren Patrick – could steal bankcards, checks, and other financial instruments from the mail.

On March 9, 2018, in South Sacramento, an unnamed co-conspirator robbed a mail carrier at gunpoint and forced the victim to hand over a postal service key. During the next few days, Deleal, Powell, Moses, and Patrick used the key to steal mailed bankcards and checks. They then attempted to use these items to purchase goods and obtain cash.

Powell and Deleal further conspired to claim reward money offered for information relating to the robbery and the stolen postal service key. In executing this plan, they planted the stolen key on Moses while he was sleeping in his car and called the U.S. Postal Service to report Moses’ location and inquire about the reward. After receiving this tip, investigators worked quickly to make arrests and learned that Deleal orchestrated the conspiracy and related crimes.

This case is the product of an investigation by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department, and the Sacramento Police Department. Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert J. Artuz and Assistant U.S. Attorney Samuel Stefanki are prosecuting the case.

Deleal is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Morrison C. England Jr. on Oct. 7, 2021. He faces a maximum statutory penalty of 25 years in prison and a $1 million fine for armed robbery, and a maximum statutory penalty of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine for bank fraud. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which consider a number of variables.

Moses, Patrick, and Powell have already pleaded guilty to federal charges and were sentenced in the following related cases in this district: U.S. v. Patrick, 2:18-cr-79-MCE, U.S. v. Moses, 2:18-cr-90‑MCE, and U.S. v. Powell, 2:18-cr-83-MCE.