UPDATED on Jul. 22 at 3:37 p.m.
PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The trial is underway for the two men accused of breaking into a Lower Merion home in the middle of the night, fatally shooting a 25-year-old and seriously wounding his mother. Investigators said they targeted the wrong house.
Charles Fulforth, 41, and Kelvin Roberts, 42, are on trial on first-degree murder, burglary, and related charges.
Authorities said they broke into a home on Meredith Road in Wynnewood around 2 a.m. on Dec. 8, 2024. They had intended to go to a home on Meredith Drive in Bucks County.
Andrew Gaudio was shot and killed. His mother, 62-year-old Bernadette Gaudio, was also shot, but she survived after using voice activation to call 911 on her phone. She is still recovering from serious injuries.
According to prosecutors, Fulforth and Roberts illegally sold firearms, and a co-worker at a junk removal company told them about a home in Bucks County owned by an elderly couple with a significant number of guns. They intended to burglarize it, but they were somehow misdirected to the wrong address by a navigation app, sending them to the house in Wynnewood instead.
In opening statements, Prosecutor Brianna Ringwood said 12 shots were fired from three guns in the home, including a shot fired into the back of Gaudio’s head as he was lying face down on the floor of his mother’s bedroom, which Ringwood called an “execution.”
While prosecutors said the evidence is overwhelming, Fulforth’s attorney, Brooks Thompson, said there is reasonable doubt, including a third gun, which was never recovered. Thompson said that shows someone else may have been involved.
Roberts’ attorney, Frank Genovese, said that while his client might have agreed to participate in a burglary, there’s no evidence he had the intent to kill.
Roberts told detectives he didn’t have a gun and never went upstairs to the bedrooms where the shootings took place. However, evidence shows two guns were fired in the home, and prosecutors said it doesn’t matter who fired the deadly shots — both men broke into the house.
Mother testifies
In testimony on Tuesday, Bernadette Gaudio told prosecutors she went to dinner on Dec. 7 to celebrate her older son’s birthday and was in bed a little after 11 p.m.
She testified she woke up around 2am to “a Black man” in her bedroom, adding she looked in his eyes as he shot her in the neck. Bernadette said she immediately knew she was paralyzed and that she still has little to no feeling below her neck.
The woman said Andrew called out to her as she heard additional gunshots. He was shot, but made it to the floor next to her bed as she used Siri on her iPhone to call 911. But she said when she saw a man come back into the bedroom, she closed her eyes so he wouldn’t know she was alive. Bernadette then heard two more gunshots.
Prosecutors say one of those shots was into the younger Gaudio’s head as he laid facedown on the floor.
On cross-examination, Roberts’ lawyer asked if Bernadette remembered telling the 911 operator she had no description of the shooter. She said she was scared the men were still in the house and wanted the call to end.
The trial is expected to last through Thursday.
The co-worker who told the two about the home, Jeremy Fuentes, is also charged, but his trial is scheduled for later this year.
Friends and family of Bernadette Gaudio have set up crowdfunding campaigns to raise money for her recovery.