The verdict comes more than two years after Jont’e Davis was fatally shot during an ordinary Saturday postal route in Warren.
CLEVELAND, Ohio — More than two years after U.S. Postal Service letter carrier Jont’e Davis was shot while working his route in Warren, a federal jury has convicted a father and son of carrying out the killing, bringing the criminal case to the sentencing stage.
The Sept. 3 verdict found Kaprise Sledge and his father, Thomas Sledge, guilty of murdering an officer and employee of the United States and of using, carrying and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence. Prosecutors said the men followed Davis for approximately 90 minutes on March 2, 2024, before a gray Dodge Ram pulled beside his postal vehicle and gunfire struck him. The Justice Department characterized the killing as premeditated and said the two defendants aided and abetted one another. Both are due to be sentenced Dec. 10.
Davis, 33, was a Warren resident whose death turned a routine mail route into the center of a lengthy federal homicide investigation. His published obituary said he had joined the Postal Service about a year before his death. He was a 2008 graduate of Warren G. Harding High School, had earned an HVAC license from ETI Technical College and had attended Kent State University. He had previously worked as a tow motor operator for Great Lakes Cheese and as a driver for AVI. Reporting from the federal trial described Davis as a father of 10.
People living near Olive Avenue Northeast became some of the first witnesses to the aftermath. At trial, a resident described hearing a series of shots and then seeing Davis’ mail vehicle moving without anyone controlling it until it struck a stop sign. Other witnesses told jurors that a pickup was beside or near the postal vehicle and then left the area. Police and emergency medical personnel responded, attempted lifesaving measures and had Davis transported to Trumbull Regional Medical Center. He later died from his wounds.
Those neighborhood observations mattered because investigators were trying to determine not only what vehicle had been used but where it had been before the attack. An eyewitness called 911 and identified a pickup connected to the shooting. Prosecutors later presented surveillance footage from homes and businesses that captured a gray Dodge Ram in the area at different points. Authorities established that the pickup was registered to Kaprise Sledge. The Justice Department said the collected video and telephone data ultimately showed the Sledges had followed Davis along his route for roughly an hour and a half.
Hours after the killing, investigators located the Dodge Ram behind a house on Maryland Avenue Northeast, about a mile away. The placement of the vehicle became part of the government’s presentation to jurors. A U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigator testified that he used a drone over the neighborhood and obtained an image showing the truck parked in the backyard near the rear door, where it was not readily visible from the street. Cameras had recorded the vehicle in the broader area before and after the shooting, and prosecutors argued that the sequence helped connect the truck to the crime.
The investigation was increasingly built around digital records rather than a single piece of physical evidence. Postal inspector Joshua Gardner testified that he began preparing search warrants shortly after Davis was killed. He asked the three major cellular providers for information about devices recorded near the shooting location and near the property where the truck was found. The request included a radius of about 150 meters and specified time periods surrounding the shooting and discovery of the vehicle. Gardner testified that three devices fit the criteria and that two were associated with the Sledges.
Defense lawyers made that technology a major point of dispute. They argued that the government’s method of interpreting location records was not reliable enough to prove where the men were at the critical time. Thomas Sledge’s attorney stressed that his client was not shown in surveillance videos of the pickup, that his DNA was not found inside it and that investigators had not identified him through tips received after the killing. Kaprise Sledge’s attorney pointed to the time that passed between one recorded sighting of his client in the vehicle and the shooting. The defense urged jurors not to treat the government’s electronic reconstruction as more precise than the underlying records allowed.
Investigators had another set of electronic markers available because Davis was working. The handheld scanner he used while delivering mail created location information as he moved through his route. A postal inspector testified that investigators could use those points, referred to during testimony as “bread crumbs,” to retrace his workday. That record gave prosecutors an independent way to plot Davis’ movement and compare it with surveillance recordings of the Dodge Ram and the cellphone information attributed to the defendants.
The postal data also showed that Davis had delivered a roughly 15-pound package a day before the killing to a property the government identified as belonging to Kaprise Sledge. Testimony indicated that the package originated from a Northern California return address associated with mail-order marijuana shipments, though it was not addressed to Sledge. The limits of that evidence were also made clear in court: under questioning by the defense, the inspector acknowledged he did not know what the package contained. Prosecutors have not publicly announced a confirmed motive for the killing, leaving the reason Davis was targeted unresolved in the public record.
The federal prosecution took shape months after the shooting. A grand jury indicted the Sledges in October 2024 on charges tied to the death of a federal employee and the use of a firearm. They pleaded not guilty. Because Davis was a Postal Service employee killed while carrying out his official duties, the homicide fell within federal law. The government initially had the legal option to pursue the death penalty, but prosecutors later told the court they would not seek capital punishment. The case instead proceeded toward a trial in which life imprisonment remained a possible outcome.
Jurors were selected in August 2026 before U.S. District Judge Donald C. Nugent. The prosecution called neighborhood witnesses, Warren police officers and postal investigators while introducing the video, location records, mail-scanner information and evidence involving the Dodge Ram. The defense focused on gaps and uncertainties, particularly the level of precision that could fairly be assigned to the cellphone analysis. After nearly two weeks of proceedings, the jury accepted the prosecution’s case and convicted both men on both federal counts.
The verdict does not end the case. Federal sentencing rules leave the final prison terms to Nugent. The murder count allows a sentence of up to life in prison, according to the Justice Department. The firearm conviction carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and a possible maximum of life. The court must weigh the federal sentencing guidelines and statutory factors before imposing punishment, meaning the Dec. 10 hearing will determine the practical consequence of the jury’s decision for each defendant.
The investigation was led by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s Cleveland office and the Warren Police Department, with assistance from the FBI Violent Crimes Task Force, the Trumbull County Action Group Drug Task Force and Trumbull County Emergency Management. For Davis’ family, the prosecution has moved from an investigation that began on an Ohio residential street to two federal convictions. The remaining confirmed step is sentencing, while the public record still does not provide a definitive explanation for why Davis was selected as the target.
Author note: Last updated October 20, 2026.