An ex-postal worker from Middlebury has been sentenced to five months in prison for failing to deliver thousands of pieces of mail.

Vickey Warner, 50, will begin serving that sentence on January 5. When the prison term is finished, Warner will serve another five months on home detention. Warner must also pay a fine of $3,000.

At a sentencing hearing in federal court in South Bend today, Warner’s attorney described her as being “overwhelmed by her responsibilities.”

It was said that Warner was suffering from depression and anxiety and that she was distraught over the death of her mother.

The defense claimed that Warner’s crime was not motivated by greed, and that her actions did not result in any financial gain.

Defense attorney William Stanley also told the judge that Warner had asked her postal supervisor for help or additional training, but that those pleas fell on “deaf ears.”

Stanley said that Warner would often deliver as much as she could and then bring the remaining pieces of mail back to her home.

Warner spoke briefly to the judge saying that she was “truly sorry.”

The judge decided to impose prison time, in part, because Warner failed to inform her superiors about the seriousness of the situation over an 18-month period.

The judge also noted that Warner literally had “tons” of undelivered mail in her home. While Judge Robert Miller noted that some of the mail had been opened, it did not appear that anything had been removed from the envelopes.