Young robber sent to state prison

WEST CHESTER >> There are two Shawn Kings, those who know his background told a Chester County Common Pleas Court judge.

One is a friendly and responsible person, the sort who plays ball with his son in the backyard, offers to cook dinner, writes poetry, and works hard at improving his talents on the basketball court. That person has a supportive family and a future filled with potential.

But “the other Shawn” is something different.

That individual is a manipulative criminal, without respect for

authority, looking for an easy way to secure quick money to fuel a drug habit That person deserves to be sent to a state prison to guard against his future threats to the community.

On Monday, the second King was ordered imprisoned for five to 10 years in a state correctional institution on charges of robbery, burglary, and theft at a sentencing proceeding before Judge Anthony Sarcione.

“This is a tragedy,” Sarcione told the courtroom filled with King’s supporters and family before handing down his sentence. “Mr. King, I don’t know what you were thinking.”

King, 19, of West Whiteland, a promising former basketball player at Downingtown East High School, had pleaded guilty to three counts of robbery, two counts of burglary, a count of theft by deception, and two counts of criminal conspiracy in September, 16 months after he and three other men were arrested outside a Montgomery County convenience store and accused of a string of armed robberies at convenience stores in Downingtown, West Whiteland, and Upper Providence.

The prosecutor in the case, Assistant District Attorney Alexis Shaw, had asked Sarcione to impose a harsh sentence of eight to 18 years in state prison on King for his series of crimes, which she said had endangered customers at the convenience stores, showed King to be a criminal organizer, and evinced a lack of respect for the authority of the justice system. His theft of approximately $10,000 from a West Whiteland bank branch had been committed, she said, while he was free on bail for the robberies and burglaries.

“This type of behavior shows a defendant who shows no respect for the community he lives in,” Shaw told the judge in making her presentation of his criminal activities. “He didn’t care about anything except getting money.”

But King’s attorney, Steve Jarmon of Malvern,

“This type of behavior shows a defendant who shows no respect for the community he lives in. He didn’t care about anything except getting money.” — Chester County Assistant District Attorney Alexis Shaw

urged Sarcione not to be swayed by Shaw’s call for a long term in state prison, saying that his client was too young and immature to be forced to spend that many years in a state prison cell.

“Clearly, my client has pleaded guilty to some serious crimes,” Jarmon said. “But he was 18 at the time, barely an adult. The sentence (the prosecution) is asking for is inappropriate.” He said that King would be better off serving a full 11 1/2 to 23 months in Chester County Prison. “Someone of his age should be offered an opportunity to avoid state prison.”

But Sarcione ended up largely agreeing with the prosecution, noting that King seemed to be the “brains behind the operation” in the crimes that were committed with four other men. He directed the burglaries and robberies from the outside, and convinced a friend to help him pass bad checks at the Exton bank, money from which he used to fund a vacation in Florida.

King has been in county prison on $100,000 since his re-arrest in August on the theft charges. he was led fro the courtroom at the end of the sentencing hearing to await a transfer to the state system.

According to Shaw’s recitation of the cases and court documents, King was taken into custody in the early morning hours of May 26, 2017, with three other men. In the car he was stopped in were two Airsoft pellet guns that had been used in the robbery of a Wawa in Collegeville the men were suspected of committing.

Police there contacted Detective Sgt. Scott Pezick of West Whiteland police, who earlier that evening had investigated the armed robbery of a Wawa on Boot Road in the township. According to witnesses, a man entered the store and pointed a gun at the counter clerk, demanding money. The man, who was wearing a bandana and holding a handgun, got away with about $1,400 in cash.

At the time, King had been waiting to pick up a food order at the counter. He spoke with Pezick outside and described himself as a witness to the robbery. What Pezick knew at the time is that a person identified as King had also spoken with Downingtown police outside a Turkey Hill store on Lancaster Avenue in Downingtown that had been the target of a failed robbery.

In that incident, a masked man, later identified as Stephen Crews of Coatesville, entered the store, indicated that he had a gun, and demanded money. But Shaw said the clerks there told the gunman they could not open the cash drawer without making a transaction. The man turned and left.

Shaw said that Crews and a third man involved in the robberies, Milton Hearns of Downingtown, had gathered with King at his home in Uwchlan and discussed what had happened. They said King decided he would act as a customer at the next robbery target to get the clerk to open the cash drawer, which he did.

The West Whiteland robbery occurred about 10:40 p.m. May 25, 2017. At 3:30 a.m. the following day, Pezick got a call from Upper Providence police telling him they had a suspect matching King’s description from the Wawa robbery in Collegeville, in which Crews had displayed two of the Airsoft pellet guns.

When Pezick arrived on the scene to find King, the man he had interviewed just hours earlier, King said it was “pure coincidence” that he had been with a group of men in the robbery of a second Wawa.

The burglaries that King pleaded guilty to had occurred at the Severgn Apartment complex in Uwchlan on May 5 and May 23, 2017. In that, King had directed Crews to break into the complex’s community room to attempt to steal computer equipment. The first attempt failed, but the second was successful in getting laptops and tablets, which Crews later tried to pawn.

Crews and Hearns, as well as the driver of the car, Todd Dias, both gave statements implicating King in the burglaries and robberies. He was charged on May 31, 2017, but was able to post $50,000 bail on Oct. 31, 2017.

Shaw said that in July, King convinced a friend to open up an account at a Santander bank branch in West Whiteland using a $10,000 check from King’s Capitol One account. That check later bounced for insufficient funds, but not before the man withdrew $7,600 from the account, giving a large portion to King.

Shaw said that receipts from King’s account later showed that he used the money to go to Florida, at the time he was awaiting trial on the robbery and burglary charges.

“He knew what he was doing was wrong, but he went ahead and did it anyway,” she said.

Hearns and Crews are awaiting trial.