Serial armed robber gets 59 years in jail

Charged in three armed heists at convenience stores

A Philadelphia man who authorities pegged as a serial armed robber was sentenced this week for, among other crimes, a carjacking at a Phoenixville-area convenience store.

Cory D. Foster, 29, was sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Court Judge Mark A. Kearney to a total of 714 months (59.5 years) in prison for three armed robberies of convenience stores and an armed carjacking.

In May 2016, a jury convicted Foster of robbing at gunpoint a Lukoil Service station and convenience store in Trevose, Bucks County; a Liberty gas station and convenience store in Plymouth Meeting, Montgomery County; and lastly a CITGO gas station and convenience store on Valley Forge Road in Schuylkill, where he and another man stole a customer’s car at gunpoint.

During the CITGO robbery, Foster and his accomplice used a .38 handgun to threaten the store employee. They pistol whipped the man, stole his wallet and cash, and tied him up hand and foot in a back room. They also locked the owner of the car they stole in the same room, taking the victim’s cash and car keys.

The took about $1,000 in cash from the store’s lottery drawer, $790 from the checkout drawer, and $3,900 in cigarettes.

The two men escaped in the victim’s car and a getaway car they had driven to the scene the night of Dec. 7, 2014. Foster was identified by his federal parole officer on a videotape from the CITGO station; his accomplice has not been identified.

Foster was apprehended in the stolen car with another man after he was identified by a civilian witness and stopped by Delaware State Police in Wilmington, Del., in February 2015.

In asking Kearney to impose a term of incarceration of between 919 and 977 months in a federal penitentiary, Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Henson, who represented the prosecution at sentencing, said the fact that Foster was on parole at the time of his robbery spree showed he was likely to re-offend.

“Foster’s egregious, predatory criminal conduct strongly suggests that he is incorrigible and will commit further crimes upon release from prison,” Henson wrote in his sentencing memorandum. “Before the robbery spree, which was blessedly cut short in Delaware and for which Foster is to be sentenced here, he had committed a residential burglary and had participated in a violent strong-arm robbery and an armed commercial robbery.

Foster committed these crimes during November and December 2014. Previously, in U.S. District Court in Delaware, Foster was sentenced to 10 years in prison for possession of the pistol by a convicted felon.

He must serve 57 years of the prison sentence imposed by Kearney after serving the previous 10-year sentence. Foster’s accomplices in the robberies have not been identified, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice in Philadelphia.

The case was investigated by the FBI; the Plymouth Police Department, which with the FBI took the lead in the investigation; the Bensalem and Schuylkill police departments; and the Delaware State Police.

To contact staff writer Michael P. Rellahan cll 610-696-1544.