Accused CVS robber gets quick verdict from Delco jury
MEDIA COURTHOUSE » It took a jury less than an hour Wednesday to convict a Delaware man of all charges in the robbery of the Media CVS last year.
Kwesi Hudson, 47, of Wilmington, was found guilty of two counts of robbery and two counts of false imprisonment for the May 24 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 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.
Both employees testified Wednesday that they were afraid during the robbery, which occurred just before closing time.
One of the employees told Assistant District Attorney Michael Mattson that a man wearing all black and a black ski mask entered the store at about 9:50 p.m., quickly approached her and placed a handgun against her waist.
The 19-year-old said she and her manager were the only ones in the store at the time.
The employee said the gunman demanded that she take him to the store’s safe. She led him to the office where her manager was counting out the drawers for the day and knocked on the door. The door has a one-way mirror, but she said the robber crouched down while waiting for the manager to respond.
The manager testified that she looked through the window, but only saw only the employee.
“I opened the door and he popped up behind her,” the manager said. “He had a gun in his hand. He pointed it at my head and told us to get into the office.”
The employee said that Hudson ordered her on the floor and pulled her hair. It was during that period that the robbery became real, she said, and she felt the most afraid.
What Hudson did not know was that the manager had been video-chatting with her boyfriend, who saw and heard the robber demand money from the safe. The boyfriend blocked his camera, muted the conversation and directed his brother and father to call the police.
Media Patrol Sgt. Robert Carroll said he was working a shift for an outdoor event that night, about 30 seconds away, when the call came in for an armed robbery at the CVS.
Carroll parked his vehicle in the Media Real Estate parking lot, took out and loaded a rifle, then positioned himself on the corner of Baltimore Pike and Radnor Street to see inside the store.
Officers John McCormick and Anthony Dintino also soon arrived in the front of the store, while Sgt. Matthew Egan covered the rear.
The employee and manager said that after emptying the safe, the robber led them to the back of the store and told them to get into a bathroom. From there, they described hearing running and commotion inside the store before officers discovered them and led them to safety.
Carroll said he saw a man wearing a black ski mask begin to exit the store and shouted commands to him, but the man reentered the CVS. Dintino said he followed the man into the store and into the back, where the two women were found in the locked bathroom.
Knowing the robber had not escaped out the back, Dintino said officers performed a sweep of the store and determined he must be hiding in an upstairs store room. A call for SWAT and K-9 officers was put out.
Dintino said the narrow stairway and cramped store room made K-9 officers and their handlers impractical. After attempting to negotiate for several minutes from outside the store room with no response, he said officers sent in a small robot to surveil the room.
The robot, directed by a human controller, found what Dintino described as a foot and leg in one of the store room aisles before a jacket was thrown over it. He said the robber followed instructions to remove the jacket and then to walk out to officers, where he was taken into custody.
County Detective Dave McDonald said he investigated the scene and found gloves and a ski mask stashed among the items in the store room, as well as a plastic Daisy pellet gun designed to look like a real gun.
McDonald said there was no reason to perform fingerprint or DNA collection because the suspect had been apprehended at the scene. No one else was found inside the store, according to officers.
Also found at the top of the first aisle was a ripped CVS bag containing $4,710, which McDonald said was returned to the store the following day.
Hudson did not testify. He has been incarcerated since his arrest at the county prison in Concord, having failed to post $500,000 bail.
Delaware County Common Pleas Court Judge Mary Alice Brennan revoked bail Wednesday and sent sentencing for August 7, pending a presentence investigation and psychiatric evaluation.
Hudson is also charged in three other robberies, two in Chester County and one at an Upper Chichester Walgreens. All of them took place in 2017. A hearing on the Upper Chichester case is scheduled for today.
Mattson said Hudson is facing a minimum 10 to 20 years and maximum 22 to 44 years in prison for the CVS robbery. Each robbery charge carries a mandatory minimum 10- to 20year sentence.
Hudson had previously been sentenced to 17 to 20 years in New Jersey for a robbery in 1997 and was released in December 2014, according to online records.