{"id":11034,"date":"2025-10-22T09:09:21","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T09:09:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/11034\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T09:09:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T09:09:21","slug":"lower-merion-woman-testifies-about-home-invasion-intruders-killing-her-son","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/11034\/","title":{"rendered":"Lower Merion woman testifies about home invasion, intruders killing her son"},"content":{"rendered":"

NORRISTOWN \u2014 With heart-wrenching testimony, a Lower Merion Township woman recalled the night her life was forever altered by two intruders who invaded her home, shot her in the neck as she lay in bed and then fatally shot her son as he rushed to her aid.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe next thing I remember is waking up to a gun blast. Instantly, I could feel that my body was completely paralyzed,\u201d Bernadette Gaudio testified in Montgomery County Court on Tuesday during the trial of Jeremy Fuentes, the man accused of helping two others plan the violent 2:20 a.m. Dec. 8, 2024, home invasion.<\/p>\n

Gaudio, 61, recalled hearing her 25-year-old son, Andrew, make his way from his bedroom to her room as she struggled to call out to him after she was shot in the neck by an intruder.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know Andrew was trying to make his way to my room. He was calling, \u2018Mom, Mom.\u2019 I heard gunshots,\u201d Gaudio tearfully testified, recalling the sound of the gunshots that ended her son\u2019s life inside their home in the unit block of Meredith Road in Lower Merion.<\/p>\n

\"BernadetteBernadette Gaudio with her sons, Andrew, on right, and Robert, on left. (Photo courtesy GoFundMe)<\/p>\n

Prosecutors previously described Andrew\u2019s killing as an \u201cexecution,\u201d alleging the young man was shot in the back of the head as he lay face down on the floor of his mother\u2019s bedroom.<\/p>\n

As a result of being paralyzed, Gaudio had to use the Siri voice function on her cellphone to call 911, according to testimony.<\/p>\n

Seated in a wheelchair, Gaudio wept as she recounted the terrifying events during questioning by First Assistant District Attorney Edward F. McCann Jr. A family friend who accompanied Gaudio to court used a tissue to gently dab the tears from Gaudio\u2019s face. Gaudio\u2019s eldest son, Robert, also assisted his mother as she testified for the jury.<\/p>\n

The jurors, seven men and five women, their expressions solemn, listened attentively as Gaudio told them she was once a very active woman who enjoyed hiking and gym workouts and that the violent attack left her paralyzed from the neck down.<\/p>\n

Tuesday marked the second time that Gaudio testified at a trial about the events.<\/p>\n

In July, a jury convicted Charles Edward Fulforth, 41, of the 1600 block The Fairway, in the Jenkintown section of Abington Township, and Kelvin Roberts Jr., 42, of the 7200 block of North 21st Street, Philadelphia, of first-degree murder in connection with the fatal home invasion and they face mandatory life prison terms when they are formally sentenced later this year.<\/p>\n

Fuentes, 27, of the 7200 block of North 18th Street, Philadelphia, is accused of providing information that was the impetus for Fulforth and Roberts to carry out the home invasion during which they targeted the wrong house in Lower Merion while looking to steal guns as part of an alleged gun trafficking scheme.<\/p>\n

\"JeremyJeremy Fuentes, 27, is escorted by a deputy sheriff to a Montgomery County courtroom on Sept. 15, 2025, for his homicide trial. (Photo by Carl Hessler Jr. \u2013 MediaNews Group)<\/p>\n

While Fuentes was not present during the home invasion, he is charged under accomplice liability theories with second-degree murder, conspiracy to commit robbery and conspiracy to commit burglary.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat plan was born with Jeremy Fuentes. That\u2019s the reason it moved forward. The law demands he share responsibility for the way it ended,\u201d co-prosecutor Brianna Leigh Ringwood argued during her opening statement to the jury.<\/p>\n

If not for Fuentes\u2019 involvement, the burglary would not have occurred and the Gaudios would still be living their normal lives, prosecutors have argued.<\/p>\n

Second-degree murder is a killing that occurs during the commission of another felony, such as burglary, and carries a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment upon conviction.<\/p>\n

\"JeremyJeremy Fuentes is accused of second-degree murder in plot that ended with deadly home invasion burglary. (Photo by Carl Hessler Jr. \u2013 MediaNews Group)<\/p>\n

Defense lawyer Matthew Quigg suggested Fuentes had no shared criminal intent to commit a burglary with Fulforth or Roberts. Quigg argued there are \u201choles\u201d in the prosecution\u2019s evidence that will leave the jury with reasonable doubt.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not going to hear that he had an agreement to commit this burglary. He did not agree or know about that burglary,\u201d Quigg argued during his opening statement to the jury.<\/p>\n

When it was his turn to cross-examine Gaudio on Tuesday, Quigg did not ask Gaudio any questions.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn behalf of Mr. Fuentes, I want to say how sorry we are for your loss,\u201d Quigg, with a gentle tone in his voice, addressed Gaudio before returning to his seat at the defense table.<\/p>\n

Quigg has not revealed if Fuentes will testify during the trial.<\/p>\n

\"KelvinKelvin Roberts Jr., of Philadelphia, is escorted to a Montgomery County courtroom for his homicide trial on July 21, 2025. (Photo by Carl Hessler Jr. \u2013 MediaNews Group)<\/p>\n

Fuentes, Fulforth and Roberts were coworkers at Junkluggers, a junk removal business, in Upper Moreland Township.<\/p>\n

The investigation revealed that on Dec. 6, 2024, Fuentes conducted an estimate for junk removal at a Bucks County residence that had an address similar to the Meredith Road residence in Lower Merion.<\/p>\n

During a meeting with the elderly Bucks County homeowner, Fuentes observed a large gun safe, gun boxes, gun parts and ammunition, none of which were part of the estimate to be removed by Junkluggers, according to a criminal complaint filed by county Detective John Wittenberger and Lower Merion Detective James Black.<\/p>\n

But following that estimate, Fuentes called Fulforth and shared with him the information regarding the multiple firearms in that Bucks County home, detectives alleged.<\/p>\n

Fuentes and Fulforth allegedly were interested in stealing the firearms in furtherance of their alleged gun trafficking organization that illegally sold factory-made firearms as well as privately made ghost guns, machine gun conversion devices, or \u201cswitches,\u201d and silencers using 3D printers.<\/p>\n

\"CharlesCharles Fulforth is escorted to his homicide trial in Montgomery County Court on July 21, 2025. (Photo by Carl Hessler Jr. \u2013 MediaNews Group)<\/p>\n

What got lost in the translation, prosecutors alleged, was where the intended house was located and Fulforth and Roberts mistakenly went to the Gaudio home on Meredith Road in Lower Merion.<\/p>\n

Multiple gunshots were fired from three different guns during the home invasion, according to testimony. Authorities recovered two guns: a .25-caliber handgun the intruders mistakenly left at the scene and a 9mm 3D-printed ghost gun, which was found in Fulforth\u2019s possession when authorities searched his residence.<\/p>\n

Testimony revealed that DNA from Fulforth and Roberts was found on the 3D-printed gun, and the gun was a ballistic match with projectiles recovered from Andrew Gaudio\u2019s body.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors alleged the tragic murder and attempted murder were all about \u201cgreed and putting guns in the hands of criminals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roberts, Fulforth and Fuentes face a separate trial on charges of corrupt organizations, illegal sale or transfer of firearms and dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities in connection with their lead roles in the alleged gun trafficking organization.<\/p>\n

It was during the Lower Merion homicide investigation that authorities uncovered the gun trafficking organization.<\/p>\n

Originally Published: September 16, 2025 at 12:56 PM EDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NORRISTOWN \u2014 With heart-wrenching testimony, a Lower Merion Township woman recalled the night her life was forever altered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[46,182,183,185,184,186,139,28,1015],"class_list":["post-11034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lower-merion","tag-courts","tag-local-news","tag-lower-merion","tag-lower-merion-headlines","tag-lower-merion-news","tag-lower-merion-township","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-top-stories-mer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}