Gregory Lynn Schrader, the suspect in the mailing of an explosive device to Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio was sentenced in U.S. federal court to a 7 year prison sentence and three years’ probation.
Schrader, age 56, mailed the device to Sheriff Arpaio in late April 2013 and posted it from a rural U.S. postal box outside Flagstaff, Arizona. An astute postal worker saw the package was damaged and appeared to have a leak resembling gunpowder. That worker alerted authorities in Flagstaff where the devise was eventually detonated and neutralized.
The threat investigation was turned over to the FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspector Service. Agents worked the investigation for almost one year before arresting Schrader, an ex-felon, at his residence in Jay, Oklahoma. The Sheriff’s Office was kept apprised of the developments during that time. Schrader pled not guilty to all charges and was tried and convicted in September of this year in U.S. District Judge Neil Wake’s court by a jury that required only three hours to return a guilty verdict.
Evidence in the trail suggested that Schrader sent the package to Arpaio and attempted to frame the crime on his former business partner. According to court documents, Schrader previously spent several years in prison on various drug and violent crime charges.
Arpaio has had innumerable serious threats against his life and his family as well but this threat was particularly unnerving as the suspect actually created and sent a devise with components that, if opened, might have resulted in an explosion that could have caused serious injury.
“I am very grateful to the FBI, the US Postal Inspector’s Service and to the Phoenix U.S. Attorney Office for the excellent investigation and prosecution that resulted in Schrader’s conviction and incarceration,” Arpaio said today after learning of Schrader’s sentence.