Man gets serious jail time for armed Media heist
A Delaware man convicted in May of robbing the Media CVS was sentenced Tuesday to 21½ to 43 years in a state prison.
It took a jury less than an hour to convict Kwesi Hudson on two counts each of robbery and false imprisonment for the May 24, 2017 robbery at the Baltimore Pike pharmacy in which two employees were shut in a bathroom and nearly $5,000 was removed from the safe, but never left the store.
Hudson, 47, of Wilmington, was arrested at the scene after Media Police responded nearly instantly to a call of an armed robbery in progress placed by the boyfriend of one of the victims.
Neither employee was present for sentencing, but both had testified at trial that they were afraid when Hudson ordered them around with a gun in his hand and placed them in a bathroom at the back of the store before police arrived and removed them from the premises.
Officers later found Hudson hiding in a storage area, as well as a plastic Daisy pellet gun designed to look like a real gun and a ripped plastic bag containing $4,710 that had been removed from the store’s safe.
“Our residents and business owners deserve to feel secure in their places of business, as well as in their homes,” said District Attorney Katayoun M. Copeland. “Individuals who violate the sanctity of that basic right will be held accountable for their actions. In this case the defendant used a gun to violently and recklessly violate the personal security of the two victims. Today, Delaware County residents are now safer, as this violent criminal will be in custody for decades. We commend the Media Borough Police Department and the Central Delaware County Tactical Response Team for their swift response and apprehension of the defendant without incident, the Delaware County Criminal Investigation Division (CID) who assisted with the investigation, and Assistant District Attorney Michael J. Mattson who brought justice to this case.”
Mattson asked for consecutive sentences on each count. He noted Hudson had racked up numerous arrests since the 1980s and had previously served 17 years for a 1997 robbery in New Jersey.
Mattson said Hudson also had argued in a presentence interview that he only robbed the store, not the victims, and had been evasive during a psychiatric interview. Mattson said Dr. Justin Lazaroff diagnosed Hudson with antisocial personality disorder, which is marked by a higher rate of recidivism.
Mattson noted Hudson had sent a letter to one of the victims asking her to testify on his behalf, which was intercepted by her father. Mattson said the father was very angry and notified authorities.
Defense attorney Steven O’Meara said his client suffers from severe diabetes, which can affect his mood. O’Meara said he was unsure of the circumstances surrounding the psychiatric and pre-sentence interviews, but that might have played a role in his responses.
O’Meara said the letter was not intended to be threatening, but explained Hudson’s point of view that the robbery was a single event that took place at the pharmacy.
Hudson made that same point to Delaware County Court of Common Pleas Judge Mary Alice Brennan, arguing he did not feel that he robbed two individuals and that a designation of “threatening serious bodily harm” should not have been applied in this case.
“I really didn’t mean to hurt anybody,” said Hudson. “It was a bad judgment call on my part, bad decision, and I’m going to have to live with the consequences of it, but hopefully that can be decided fairly and I appreciate your judgment.”
Judge Brennan gave Hudson 10 to 20 years for each robbery count under a mandatory minimum sentence, as well as nine to 18 months from each false imprisonment count, all running consecutively.
Hudson was given credit for time served to May 25, 2017, and was ordered to have no contact with the victims. He is not eligible for good time.
Hudson also is charged in three other robberies, two in Chester County and one at an Upper Chichester Walgreens, all in 2017.
A hearing on the Walgreens case is scheduled for next week and trial before Judge Brennan is scheduled to begin Sept. 10. Hudson is represented by defense attorney Vincent Davalos in that case. Mattson is prosecuting.