LOS ANGELES — This is an official press release from the U.S. Department of Justice (USAO - California, Central), published as received.
LOS ANGELES – A San Gabriel Valley man pleaded guilty today to robbing two United States Postal Service (USPS) mail carriers, later using stolen keys to enter apartment complexes and steal mail in Baldwin Park, and assaulting federal officers who arrested him, injuring one of them.
Ruben Baca Lopez, 34, a.k.a. “Monster” and “Loony,” of Baldwin Park, pleaded guilty to two counts of robbery of mail, money, or other property of the United States by use of a dangerous weapon, and one count of being a felon and prohibited person in possession of ammunition.
Baca Lopez has been in federal custody since April 22.
According to his plea agreement, in April 2024, Baca Lopez approached a victim, who was sitting in the driver’s seat of his USPS mail delivery truck in front of a residence in Baldwin Park while carrying out his duties delivering mail on USPS’s behalf. Baca Lopez instructed the victim to “give him everything,” and lifted his shirt to reveal a gun in his right waistband.
Baca Lopez demanded and took from the victim a smartphone, the keys to the USPS vehicle, a USPS-issued key, and keys to access apartment complexes in the area. In the following weeks, Baca Lopez used the keys he stole from this victim to access mailboxes and steal mail in the Baldwin Park area.
In May 2024, Baca Lopez robbed a second USPS letter carrier as the victim was placing mail inside a mailbox at an apartment complex. Baca Lopez accessed the area where this victim was standing by using an apartment key he stole from the previous month’s victim during that earlier robbery. Baca Lopez forcibly took from this victim his cellphone, wallet, smartwatch, a USPS-issued badge and two USPS-issued keys.
Two weeks after the second robbery, Baca Lopez forcibly assaulted two U.S. Postal Inspection Service inspectors who were arresting him. He refused to comply with their verbal commands, assaulted both inspectors and injured one of them.
On the day of his arrest, Baca Lopez knowingly possessed ammunition that was loaded inside of the chamber and magazine of a ghost gun – a privately manufactured firearm lacking a serial number – that he carried on his person.
Baca Lopez is legally barred from possessing ammunition because his criminal history includes felony convictions, including in April 2020 in Los Angeles Superior Court for domestic violence and false imprisonment, and another assault-related conviction in Los Angeles Superior Court in November 2021. Baca Lopez also was convicted of a misdemeanor domestic violence charge in Los Angeles Superior Court in February 2016.
United States District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett scheduled a December 16 sentencing hearing, at which time Baca Lopez will face a statutory maximum sentence of 25 years in federal prison on each robbery count and a statutory maximum sentence of 15 years in federal prison on the ammunition possession count.
United States Postal Inspection Service investigated this matter.
Assistant United States Attorney Sebastian Bellm of the General Crimes Section is prosecuting this case.
