A San Gabriel Valley man pleaded guilty Wednesday to robbing two U.S. Postal Service mail carriers, using stolen keys to enter apartment complexes and steal mail, and assaulting federal officers who arrested him.
Ruben Baca Lopez, 34, of Baldwin Park, pleaded guilty in Los Angeles federal court 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 will face up to 25 years behind bars on each robbery count and up to 15 years on the ammunition count at sentencing on Dec. 16, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
His plea agreement states that the defendant approached a victim who was sitting in the driver’s seat of his USPS mail delivery truck in April 2024 in front of a residence in Baldwin Park. Baca Lopez instructed the victim to “give him everything,” and lifted his shirt to reveal a gun in his waistband, he admitted.
Baca Lopez 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 to access mailboxes and steal mail in the Baldwin Park area, prosecutors said.
In May 2024, Baca Lopez robbed a second USPS letter carrier as the victim was placing mail inside a mailbox at an apartment complex.
Two weeks later, Baca Lopez 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 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.
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 November 2021.
Baca Lopez also was convicted of a misdemeanor domestic violence charge in Los Angeles Superior Court in February 2016, federal prosecutors said.