Del. man gets concurrent time for drug store heists
MEDIA COURTHOUSE » A Delaware man sentenced last week to 21½ to 43 years in a state prison for robbing the Media CVS was given a concurrent 10 to 20 year sentence Wednesday after pleading guilty to a similar robbery at an Upper Chichester Walgreens.
Kwesi Hudson, 37, of Wilmington, pleaded guilty to three counts of robbery and one count of aggravated assault, all felonies, under the negotiated plea worked out by Assistant District Attorney Michael Mattson and defense counsel Vincent Davalos.
Hudson was previously convicted on two counts of robbery and two counts of false imprisonment following a jury trial before Delaware County Common Pleas Court Judge Mary Alice Brennan for a robbery at the Baltimore Pike CVS on May 24, 2017.
Hudson was arrested at the scene in that case after Media police responded nearly instantly to a call of an armed robbery in progress placed by the boyfriend of one of the victims.
CVS employees testified that 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.
Hudson was later charged with a similar robbery at the Walgreens at 2608 Naaman’s Creek Road that occurred May 9, 2017. An affidavit of probable cause in that case states that officers responded to the pharmacy at about 9:54 p.m. for a report of an armed robbery that had just occurred.
Officers spoke with three victims, all store employees, including one juvenile. Video surveillance showed the robber enter the store with a black handgun wearing a black ski mask, black pants, dark shoes, a grey hooded sweatshirt and gloves, according to the affidavit.
The video allegedly shows the robber grabbing the juvenile by the hair and taking her toward the back of the store. The robber is seen slamming the juvenile face first into a shelf, then picking her up again by the hair and proceeding to drag her to the back office where the other two victims were counting money, according to the affidavit.
One victim said the robber entered the office with the juvenile and pointed a gun at his face. The robber ordered that victim and the juvenile to lie down on the ground and demanded that the third victim bag up the money, the affidavit states.
While the third victim was complying, the robber can be seen in the video pistol-whipping the juvenile in the back of the head, according to the affidavit. The victim who had the gun pointed at his head also reported being struck with the gun before the robber removed $40 from his wallet.
The juvenile suffered lacerations to the back of her head and lip, and was transported to Crozer Chester Medical Center for treatment.
The robber fled the store with bank bags containing $4,128 and headed toward Meetinghouse Road and CSX train tracks. Police scoured the path of the fleeing suspect and recovered cash and rolled coins, as well as a black Powerline BB gun and a black ski mask containing money.
The ski mask was sent off to the Pennsylvania State Police Crime Lab for analysis.
Upper Darby Detective Christopher Jones later learned of the CVS robbery and reviewed pictures of the suspect in that case, identified as Hudson. The affidavit notes that both suspects were wearing similar clothing.
Jones interviewed Hudson May 31, 2017, and obtained a sample of his DNA.
Hudson did not admit to the Walgreens robbery during the interview, but did allegedly say that he had planned other robberies. He also said the items recovered in the Walgreens case had been stolen out of his car a few months prior and that he had purchased a new BB gun that he used in the Media robbery, according to the affidavit.
The DNA sample was later matched to a sample recovered from the ski mask found outside the Walgreens, according to the affidavit.
Hudson was previously sentenced to serve 17 to 20 years in New Jersey for a robbery in 1997 and was released in December 2014, according to online records. He also has two other 2017 robbery cases pending against him in Chester County.
Brennan ran the Walgreens sentence concurrent to the sentence in the CVS robbery as well as the pending Chester County cases. Hudson was also ordered to pay restitution of $4,128 to the Walgreens and to have no contact with those victims.