NORRISTOWN, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — Another man has been charged with murder and conspiracy in last month’s deadly home invasion in Lower Merion. According to the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office, it was all part of a larger gun trafficking ring.
Jeremy Fuentes, 26, is charged with second-degree murder and conspiracy in connection with the Dec. 8 home invasion on Meredith Road in Wynnewood. Authorities said he was the one who set it all in motion.
According to Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele, Fuentes went to a home in Bucks County to do an estimate for his employer, Junkluggers, a junk collection agency in Willow Grove. After the estimate, Steele said Fuentes messaged his co-worker, 41-year-old Charles Fulforth, and told him that he saw multiple firearms, gun parts and ammunition in the home.
The guns were not part of the estimate for junk removal.
Two days later, on Dec. 8, Steele said Fulforth and 42-year-old Kelvin Roberts went to the home to steal the guns, but they got the location wrong. Instead of the Bucks County address, they broke into a home on Meredith Road in Lower Merion.
During the break-in, they shot and killed 25-year-old Andrew Gaudio and seriously injured his mother, 61-year-old Bernadette Gaudio.
Fulforth and Roberts were previously charged with first-degree murder. Now, Steele said Fuentes, Fulforth and Roberts are facing additional charges in connection with leading a larger gun trafficking ring that illegally sold not only factory-made firearms but also used three 3D printers to make and sell untraceable ghost guns.
Five other people are charged with being a part of that ring: 24-year-old Aaron Hiller, 33-year-old Marcus Lee Jackson, 26-year-old Jonathan Rodriguez, 38-year-old Corry Simpson, and 38-year-old Frances Staten, all of Philadelphia.
All are in custody except Jackson and Simpson. Police are still searching for them.
Investigators said the gun ring also made and illegally sold suppressors and switches, which turn a semi-automatic firearm into an automatic weapon capable of firing dozens of rounds in seconds.
According to the DA’s Office, authorities uncovered the gun trafficking ring after they found a 3D-printed ghost gun in Fulforth’s Jenkintown apartment — the same gun used to kill Andrew Gaudio, they said. Investigators determined that Fulforth manufactured the gun and many others.
“By illegally selling factory-made firearms and manufacturing numerous types of firearms, silencers and machine gun conversion devices, this gun trafficking organization was arming criminals, and they were further equipping criminals by 3D-printing and installing switches of the firearms they sold,” Steele said in a statement. “Added to that were their 3D-printed suppressors and firearms ‘lowers’ to which they purchased receivers and other necessary parts to manufacture ghost guns.
“So now we have ‘silent machine guns’ in our communities, which provides an inordinate risk to community members and law enforcement officials. … The danger of this type of gun trafficking organization is huge and simply unmeasurable.”
Steele said the deadly home invasion was “all about greed," and while Fuentes may not have been in the home that night, he’s still criminally responsible.
“He's on the hook for this, because he was the impetus behind it. And it's all accomplice liability. Everybody who's involved in this shares that culpability,” Steele said.
“If not for Fuentes’ involvement, the robbery/burglary would not have occurred."