Walnut Creek Man Who Broke Into Apartment Mailboxes Sentenced To Two Years In Prison

A Walnut Creek man who admitted stealing financial mail from 80 residents of a San Francisco apartment building has been sentenced in federal court to two years and three months in prison.

Tyler Goforth, 35, pleaded guilty in federal court in San Francisco in May to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and admitted during the plea to stealing more than $40,000 from the mailboxes of 80 residents of the Beacon apartment complex in the South Beach district.

He was sentenced Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney.

Co-defendant, Jesslyn Felix, who pleaded guilty to the same charge, will be sentenced by Chesney on Sept. 18.

Goforth admitted during his plea that he and Felix entered the apartment building’s mailroom more than a dozen times in 2017 and 2018, broke into mailboxes and stole mail containing credit cards, debit cards, checks and gift cards.

The wire fraud charge concerned the activation and use of credit and debit cards found in the stolen mail.

Defense attorney Daniel Blank, who unsuccessfully sought a lesser sentence of one year and one day in prison, said in a sentencing brief that Goforth, a former lab technician, had a “long-term and largely untreated drug addiction,” including an opioid use, and stole the money to buy drugs.