A friend of a U.S. Postal Service mail carrier accused of stealing thousands of pieces of mail from San Mateo County residents has accepted a plea for using credit cards stolen from the mail.
Edgar Guinto, 51, pleaded no contest in San Mateo County Superior Court on Friday to felony commercial burglary and felony identity theft, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said this week.
Guinto, along with two other suspects --Marlo Lacsamana, 41, and Joel Lugti, 31 -- were friends of the mail carrier Romeo Maniulit Natan, who was arrested on Dec. 19 after Daly City police obtained a search warrant for his home and found more than 2,000 pieces of mail in a storage closet as well as more than 1,000 other pieces of mail in the trunk of his car, according to the district attorney's office.
Natan pleaded not guilty in December to multiple counts of identity theft, possession of stolen property and second-degree burglary, according to the district attorney's office.
Natan allegedly stole thousands of pieces of mail from the area of Devonshire Avenue in San Carlos and passed out credit cards from the stolen mail to friends in the northern part of the county, prosecutors said.
Of the three friends who allegedly received the credit cards from the stolen mail, only Guinto has taken a plea deal.
He faces up to a year in county jail but no state prison, a term of his plea bargain, according to prosecutors. Guinto is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 31.
Lacsamana and Lugtu were scheduled for their preliminary hearings on Monday.
The defendants remain in custody in lieu of $100,000 bail for Guinto and $150,000 bail for Lacsamana and Lugtu.
