Opinion ID: 3170633
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Police Investigation and Indictment

Text: Both Hunter and Weigold contacted the police. Hunter reported that two men had robbed the post office, and one of the men had pointed a gun at her. When the police arrived, Hunter reported that there was a cell phone on the counter that was not there before the robbery attempt, and the video footage confirmed that it fell from the counter‐jumper when he hopped back over the counter. While police were investigating the scene, the cell phone began to ring. Postal Inspector Kathryn Maxwell viewed the phone’s display, which showed a ten‐digit number ending in 1880 and read “Violet.” Fort Wayne Detective Mark Rogers, who was responsible for processing the crime scene, photo‐ graphed the cell phone on the counter and took it into evi‐ dence. Cell phone records showed that the cell phone on the counter was registered to Julius Lawson. The calls being received were from a phone registered to Violet Hanson, the mother of Lawson’s son. At 9:37 p.m. that same day, Hanson consented to a search of her cell phone. There were seven outgoing calls made to Lawson’s phone on the day of the attempted robbery. Detective Rogers dusted the counter for prints and lifted seven latent prints and a palm print, which he placed into 4 No. 14‐3276 evidence. Postal Inspector Andrew Gottfried sent the prints, along with two known prints of Lawson, to the National Fo‐ rensics Lab in Dulles, Virginia. At trial, the fingerprint exam‐ iner testified that the latent prints and palm print found on the counter belonged to Lawson. Following the robbery attempt, Inspector Gottfried inter‐ viewed Weigold. She described the counter‐jumper as being about 5’8” with a thin build. She also said she saw the coun‐ ter‐jumper’s face before he pulled down his mask and re‐ called him having no facial hair or tattoos. Lawson, however, had a thin mustache, light hair on his jaw line, and a small star tattoo on his left cheek. Gottfried showed Weigold a se‐ ries of twelve photographs. Weigold said that if she “had to pick out of that stack, [she’d] pick him” as the counter‐ jumper. The photograph she chose was of Lawson. On January 23, 2013, a Fort Wayne grand jury indicted Lawson on three counts related to aiding and abetting the use of a firearm during the post office attempted robbery in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2114(a), 18 U.S.C. § 924(c), and 18 U.S.C. §§ 111(a)(1) and (b).