The trial began on Monday for two men charged in a deadly home invasion in which they allegedly broke into a Lower Merion home after mistaking it for a different address and shot two people, leaving a man dead and his mother paralyzed.
Kelvin Roberts, 42 of Norristown and Charles Fulforth, 41, of Jenkintown, were both charged with murder following the Dec. 8, 2024, shooting death of 25-year-old Andrew Gaudio.
They are both also charged in the shooting that left the victim’s 61-year-old mother, Bernadette Gaudio, paralyzed.
On Monday, July 21, a jury was selected and started to hear the evidence in the case.
Prosecutors said that the suspects planned to kill when they entered the home that day.
While she was not a witness, the jury heard first from Gaudio as the court played her 911 call for help.
Jurors also heard from the first officer to arrive at the scene that day as the only one witness on the stand on Monday.
Suspects target wrong home
Roberts, Fulforth, and a third man were charged in connection to a home invasion that happened at a property along Meredith Road in the Wynnewood section of Lower Merion Township. During the incident, Bernadette Gaudio called 911, saying she had been shot, according to investigators.
In that call, officials said, the home invaders could be heard rummaging through the house.
Court documents claim one of the men woke Gaudio in the middle of the night and shot her in the neck as she lay in bed. The same attacker shot her son execution-style after he attempted to come to his mother’s aid, police claim.
Officers who responded to the home found Gaudio and her son suffering from gunshot wounds.
Investigators believe that Roberts was criminally involved with Fulforth, who was his boss at the junk removal company, Junkluggers in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania.
Business records obtained by investigators revealed that on Dec. 6, 2024, employees at Junkluggers conducted an estimate for a junk removal job at a residence in Bucks County, with an address that was similar to that of Bernadette Gaudio’s.
One of the homeowners at that Bucks County property owns multiple firearms that were secured in three safes, investigators said.
Court documents note that investigators believe the pair mistakenly put the wrong address when planning to steal weapons from that property and, instead, ended up at the Gaudio home in Montgomery County.
The gun that police believe was used in the home invasion was found in Fulforth’s possession, officials said.
The trial for a third individual, Jeremy Fuentes, who has also been charged with murder and other charges related to that same incident, is scheduled for September.
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to reflect the correct date of the home invasion and murder.