A Montco jury convicts two men of first-degree murder and related offenses in fatal Lower Merion burglary

After four hours of deliberation Thursday, a Montgomery County jury convicted two men of first-degree murder and related crimes for killing a Lower Merion man and grievously wounding his mother in what prosecutors described as an act of “unfathomable evil.”

The verdict against Charles Fulforth, 41, and Kelvin Roberts, 42, came after four days of testimony, including Bernadette Gaudio’s emotional recounting of the middle-of-the-night break-in and shooting that left her paralyzed from the neck down and her son Andrew, 25, dead.

The two men forced their way into the family’s home in December while looking for a cache of guns to steal. They were targeting a home with a similar address in Bucks County, which they had learned of through a junk-hauling business they worked for.

In addition to the murder charges, Fulforth and Roberts were also found guilty of attempted murder, robbery, and burglary.

Roberts’ attorney, Frank Genovese, said his client was disappointed with the verdict, and has expressed remorse for what happened to the Gaudios. Fulforth’s attorney, Brooks Thompson, declined to comment.

Earlier Thursday, in their closing arguments, the lawyers told jurors that prosecutors had failed to prove the two men plotted to murder anyone that night when they broke into the Gaudios’ home.

But First Assistant District Attorney Ed McCann scoffed at that explanation, saying their intentions were abundantly clear. He urged the jury to convict them of first-degree murder.

“What you would have to believe to find them not guilty would be the most implausible explanation,” McCann said. “You’d have to ignore every piece of evidence in this case.”

The men plotted the burglary over text, and rode together to Lower Merion.

Forensic evidence showed one of the men shot Bernadette Gaudio in the neck, shattering her spinal cord. When her younger son went to confront her attackers “armed with only the love for his mother in his heart,” another gunman shot him multiple times, McCann said.

In an emotional statement after the verdict was read, Robert Gaudio, with his mother at his side, thanked prosecutors for their dogged work in bringing his brother’s killers to justice.

“The events that night in December ended in the needless killing of a beloved son, brother, and friend to many,” Gaudio said. “Andrew was a bright light in so many people’s lives, a man who in his final moments was braver than we all could have imagined.”

McCann, the prosecutor, called the killing one of the most awful murders he’s prosecuted in his career: Two totally innocent people targeted while they slept.

Footage taken from a Ring doorbell camera near a West Philadelphia home the gunmen fled to after the shooting recorded Fulforth describing shooting Andrew Gaudio as he lay prone on the ground. In that same video, played in court, Roberts consoles Fulforth, telling him he “had to” shoot the 25-year-old to prevent him from getting up.

“Imagine how cold-blooded you have to be to stand over an unarmed 25-year-old and put a round in the back of his head,” McCann said. “This didn’t leave a mark on them. They were not affected by this at all.”

Hours later, Roberts texted Fulforth in a panic, telling him that the police wanted to speak with his girlfriend and that his picture had been published in news reports about the killing. He asked Fulforth for money to help him flee to Jamaica, but Fulforth said he was struggling to sell jewelry he had acquired, much of which had turned out to be fake.

McCann, the prosecutor, said the context was clear: Fulforth was referring to Bernadette Gaudio’s jewelry, which Fulforth had stolen, along with her jewelry box, on the night of the burglary. That box was later discovered in the home in West Philadelphia where Roberts was living.

Genovese, Roberts’ attorney, conceded that his client agreed to help Fulforth steal a safe he was told would be in the home’s basement. But Genovese said Fulforth, who arrived at the scene wearing a bulletproof vest, changed that plan when things went wrong. He, Genovese said, seemed the more likely murderer.

“If anything, the evidence shows that Mr. Fulforth realized this was the wrong house and there was nothing in that basement,” Genovese said. “And he decided to go to the second floor to get something out of this.”

Genovese said Roberts fled the scene, leaving Fulforth “high and dry” without a vehicle, when Fulforth confronted the Gaudios. He reminded jurors that Fulforth had access to 3D printers and had the 3D-printed 9mm handgun used to kill Andrew Gaudio in his possession when he was arrested.

But Thompson, Fulforth’s attorney, rejected both prosecutors’ and Genovese’s theories of the case, saying the evidence left behind in that home was anything but clear. And he suggested a third, unidentified gunman was inside the house that night, given that three different guns were fired inside.

Thompson noted that the gun safe his client planned to steal weighed over 800 pounds — far too heavy for just two people to carry on their own. He also cast doubt on Bernadette Gaudio’s testimony describing the man who shot her, saying that she initially told police she did not see her attacker, or the person who killed her son.

Thompson also noted that Fulforth’s DNA was not found in the Gaudios’ stolen Jeep, the vehicle that prosecutors say he fled in after being abandoned by Roberts.

McCann told jurors the key fob for that Jeep was found in Fulforth’s apartment when he was arrested.

“It’s accountability time,” McCann said to the two defendants, addressing them directly. “You don’t have your guns, you don’t have your bulletproof vest, you don’t have your tools.

“They know who you are and what you did.”