A Bronx man was sentenced Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026, to 82 months in federal prison for slashing a uniformed, on-duty U.S. Postal Service mail carrier with a knife in a case Garcia's defense attorney said traces back to a $1,500 payment from a drug dealer who wanted someone else attacked entirely. John Garcia, 50, struck the victim in the head and right ear without warning after approaching him from behind while the carrier was delivering mail.
U.S. District Judge Margaret M. Garnett handed down the sentence on Oct. 29, 2026, in the Southern District of New York, ordering 70 months for the assault itself and an additional 12 months for violating a prior term of federal supervised release, for a combined 82 months, according to a report on the sentencing hearing. “I sentence you to 70 months on the instant offense, and an additional 12 months on the VOSR, for a total of 82 months,” the judge said, according to that account. Garnett also imposed three years of supervised release once Garcia completes his prison term.
The attack happened at approximately 12:50 p.m. on July 16, 2025, in the Bronx, when Garcia attacked the mail carrier with a sharp object. Federal prosecutors announced charges against Garcia in a press release. Court documents reviewed by Daily Voice describe the injuries in detail: a three-inch cut behind the victim's right ear, a smaller cut to the top of his ear, and two additional three-inch cuts to the top of his head. The carrier was taken to a hospital, where doctors closed the wounds with stitches, and Garcia fled the scene afterward, per the same outlet.
A Case of Mistaken Identity, Defense Says
Garcia's attorney told the court that a drug dealer had offered Garcia $1,500 to assault someone, and that Garcia agreed and attacked the wrong person while high, according to the sentencing account from the Matthew Russell Lee ICP newsletter. Federal authorities said Garcia did not know the victim and had no previous connection to him, per Daily Voice's reporting. The prosecutor told the judge the victim described it as an attack on a stranger, recalling that Garcia told him, “you got the wrong guy, revenge on the wrong guy.”
The toll on the victim went beyond the physical wounds. “He's required therapy, he was afraid of leaving his house,” the prosecutor said, according to the newsletter's account of the hearing. Federal prosecutors released images of the victim's wounds, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service conducted the investigation into the attack, per Daily Voice.
A Lengthy Criminal History Shaped the Sentence
The judge placed Garcia in criminal history category six — the highest classification — which put the sentencing guideline range at 70 to 87 months for the assault, plus up to 24 months for the supervised-release violation, according to the newsletter's account of the hearing. Garcia was already serving a three-year term of federal supervised release at the time of the July 2025 attack, stemming from a June 2020 conviction on five counts of Hobbs Act robbery, for which he had received a four-year prison sentence, per Daily Voice. A federal court filing confirms Garcia was sentenced on or about Dec. 2, 2020, to 48 months' imprisonment and three years of supervised release in connection with those robberies, according to a United States District Court filing.
Garcia was arrested on Aug. 5, 2025, and has remained in custody since then, per Daily Voice's reporting. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York announced the sentence on Oct. 29, 2026. Once Garcia completes his 82-month prison term, he will begin the three-year period of supervised release that Judge Garnett ordered.
