Woman sent to prison for role in home invasion robbery

NORRISTOWN >> A former Stowe woman is headed to prison for her participation in a home invasion robbery with two others in Pottstown during which three victims were threatened at gunpoint or restrained with tape while the home was ransacked.

Annette Bowen, 58, formerly of Stowe but most recently of the 400 block of West Paterson Street in Lansford, Carbon County, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to 3 to 6 years in a state correctional facility on charges of robbery fear of serious bodily injury, burglary, persons not to possess firearms and conspiracy in connection with the January 2021 home invasion.

Judge Wendy G. Rothstein, who imposed the sentence, also ordered Bowen to pay $8,503 in restitution in connection with the incident. Rothstein ordered Bowen to have no contact with the three victims.

Bowen pleaded guilty to the charges earlier this year and testified for prosecutors against one of her co-conspirators, Devon Malcom Williams, 32, also of the Lansford address, at his trial in July.

Williams, who reportedly was the boyfriend

of Bowens, is awaiting sentencing after a jury convicted him of multiple charges of robbery fear of serious bodily injury, receiving stolen property, unlawful restraint, terroristic threats, theft by unlawful taking, recklessly endangering other persons, possession of a firearm and conspiracy in connection with the incident.

A third person, Charles “Cheese” Williams, 58, of Philadelphia, is still awaiting trial for his alleged role in the crime, according to court records.

Assistant District Attorney Caitlin B. Wilenchik prosecuted the case.

The three victims testified during Williams’s trial, describing the terror they felt.

The investigation began about 4:39 p.m. on Jan. 16, 2021, when Pottstown police responded to a residence in the 1200 block of North Charlotte Street for a report of a home invasion robbery.

A 76-year-old man who lived at the residence and two friends, a man and a woman, were sitting on a side porch when three subjects, later determined to be Devon Williams, Charles Williams and Bowen, entered the residence, according to court papers. The three suspects carried a handgun, a knife or a Taser during the incident, court documents indicate.

Authorities alleged Charles Williams brandished the firearm during the home invasion and threatened to kill the victims if they did not cooperate.

The man and woman who were visitors in the home were restrained with tape on their legs and arms while the homeowner was directed to open a safe, according to court papers and testimony. The homeowner complied “because he was afraid the male would shoot him or his friends,” according to the criminal complaint filed by Pottstown Police Corporal Todd Istenes.

The home invaders stole multiple antiques, including firearms, rare coins, jewelry, cash and the victims’ cell phones and personal belongings.

One of the victims recognized Bowen as a former Stowe resident, according to court papers.

During the investigation, detectives also recovered home surveillance camera footage that depicted the suspects entering the residence and which helped positively identify the three suspects.

When detectives searched the Lansford residence linked to Bowen and Devon Williams on Jan. 28 they recovered many of the items that were stolen during the home invasion and clothing allegedly worn by Williams during the robbery, according to court papers. Detectives also linked Devon Williams’s DNA to a stolen firearm that was recovered.

Court documents indicate detectives also recovered some of the stolen items in Charles Williams’s Philadelphia residence when he was arrested.