Unruly Avondale man guilty in burglary trial

WEST CHESTER » The trio who burglarized the homes of southern Chester County residents four years ago sometimes got very lucky, finding jewelry worth tens of thousands their ransacking. A ruby red ring worth $17,000. A diamond ring worth $10,000.

Other times, what they collected from the houses whose front doors they bashed in was of little value, at least to the “mastermind” of the group, Christopher Michael Hersh.

If he found something in the sack of stolen goods he would sort through as he, his wife and their partner drive away from the empty house, like s not he would roll down the window of the getaway car and toss the item out the window.

“They stole somuch more than property,” said Assistant District Attorney Zachary Yorick in his closing argument to the jury at the end of Hersh’s trial last week in Common Pleas Court, pointing to the testimony of one witness who recalled losing the wedding band of his deceased wife — a simple but cherished treasure that has never been recovered. “They stole memories that these people can never get back.”

On Friday, the jury of six men and six woman hearing Hersh’s case found him guilty of all charges, including multiple counts of burglary, theft, receiving stolen property, and conspiracy. The pane had deliberated for just over four hours before returning to Judge Jeffrey Sommer’s courtroom with its decision.

Hersh, 36, of Avondale, who had represented himself at the five-day-long trial, was returned to Chester County Prison following the verdict to wait sentencing, which Sommer will conduct in the near future. His co-conspirators, wife Anita Hersh and partner Jose Goines, have already pleaded guilty of been convicted in the burglaries.

The trial had been disrupted on Thursday when Hersh grew violently angry, upending a court podium during cross-examination of hiswife, who testified for the prosecution, and ultimately being tackled and Tasered when he refused to obey instructions from Sommer to settle himself.

In his brief closing argument, read from a handwritten statement in which he criticized the prosecution for framing the case against him, he apologized briefly to the jurors for his outburst.

“Iwould like to apologize for yesterday,” he said while seated at the defense table in leg shackles. “That was out of character.”

Hersh’s contention was that he should be found not guilty of the charges because none of the homeowners had either seen himor identified him as having been inside their homes, and there was no forensic evidence that tied him to the five break-ins that occurred in October an November 2016.

“I am an innocent man kept in prison for four years, with no physical evidence,” Hersh said. “I only ask you to listen with your hearts,. Because it is just you and I, and I rest my life in your hands. Save my life.”

But in his meticulous summation, Yurick fought back at Hersh’s suggestions that there was no evidence tying him to the case. Using an overhead screen projector, the former Philadelphia prosecutor showed the jury copies of pawn shop records tied to jewelry that had been stolen from the homes that had Hersh’s driver’s license included as the seller. He also displayed video of Hersh inside a pawn shop, wearing an expensive man’s wristwatch stolen from one of the homes.

“It is not outrageous government misbehavior that this defendant cannot overcome,” Yurick, who prosecuted the case with Assistant District Attorney Jessica Acito, state Police Corporal Stefano Gallina, and Kennett Detective Jessica Wenrich. “It’s the evidence. The defendant says it doesn’t add up, but it all adds up. It all adds up to it being the defendant (who is guilty). He is the master mind behind this whole thing.”

Hersh was arrested by state police in 2016 along with his wife and their alleged accomplice, Jose Goines. According to arrest affidavits filed by Gallina and Wenrich, the three were involved in four burglaries and one attempted burglary in West Fallowfield, West Caln, Kennett, West Marlborough, and New London between October and November 2016.

The investigators said the common scheme of the burglaries was for the trio to pick a home located a distance away from a rural road on a weekday between 6 a.m. and 5 p.m., when they guessed that the owners would not be home. Hersh and Goines would knock on the frontdoor, then kick it or a rear door in if no one answered, while Anita Hersh waited nearby in an SUV that would be used to drive from the scene.

Ransacking the home, they took only jewelry or electronics, items that could be easily pawned, and cash. Gallina was later able to match pawn shop records with items that had been reported taken in the burglaries, and then tie them to the trio through cash receipts.

He was also able to unlock computers taken from Hersh’s home after his arrest, and found that there had been Internet searches done to assess the value of the items stolen — such as a certain brand of watch— as well as to see whether police were reporting the breakins. Anita Hersh began cooperating with the investigators soon after her arrest, and was able to pint out the homes that had been burglarized, as well as remember specific details about the crimes, Yurick said.

Goines was tried and convicted of the burglaries in a week-plus long trial in 2018, at which Anita Hersh also testified. He was found guilty, and is currently serving a nine-to-18 year sentence in state prison.

The burglary charges that have held Hersh in Chester County Prison for almost four years are not the only legal jeopardy that he faces. Earlier this month he was identified by the U.S. Attorney’s Office as one of 12 inmates at the prison who fraudulently applied for unemployment benefits related to COVID-19 this year. The defendants are chargedwith submitting false applications claiming that they lost jobs as a result of the pandemic, even though they were, in fact, incarcerated at the time.

If convicted of all the federal charges, Hersh faces a maximum sentence of 35 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a $500,000 fine.

In his closing, Yurick remind the jurors of the emotional turmoil that the breakins had caused the victims, each of whom appeared on the witness stand last week. Four years later, some remain afraid to live in their homes and ache for the return of their security.

“This case is about so much more than stuff,” he said.