A 35-year-old Allentown, Pennsylvania man charged in a violent kidnapping in Meriden and $3 million jewelry store robbery in Fairfield in 2013 has been sentenced to 19 years in prison.
Timothy Forbes, 35, of Allentown, Pennsylvania previously pleaded guilty to his role in the crime.
Authorities said Kasam Hennix, William Davis, Christopher Gay and Jeffrey Houston, were wearing masks and gloves and two of them had handguns when they broke into an apartment on Gravel Street in Meriden around 9 p.m. on April 11, 2013, bound four victims with tape and covered their heads with pillowcases, towels and jackets.
Hennix, Davis, and Houston then forced two of the victims into one of the victim’s vehicles and drove to Lenox Jewelers in Fairfield, where the two victims worked, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Forbes then traveled to Fairfield in a separate vehicle, while Gay remained in the Meriden apartment to guard the two other victims, federal officials said.
While at the jewelry store, Hennix, Davis and Houston stole jewelry, watches and loose diamonds worth more than $3 million and fled in the victim’s car, leaving the two victims bound inside the store, federal officials said.
Hennix, Davis and Houston then abandoned the victim’s vehicle and got into Forbes vehicle and one of them called Gay to say they carried out the robbery and should leave the apartment. Then they fled the state.
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In May 2013, all five defendants were arrested.
Investigators said Forbes, Houston and Gay had traveled from Pennsylvania to Connecticut on several occasions in the weeks before the robbery to track the victims’ movements and Forbes and Gay placed a GPS on one of the victim’s vehicles.
Forbes pleaded guilty to one count of kidnapping, one count of interference with commerce by robbery and one count of use of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence and is scheduled to be sentenced in Hartford on April 13.
Hennix, of Easton, Pennsylvania; Davis, of Allentown, Pennsylvania; Houston, of Allentown, Pennsylvania; and Gay, of the Bronx, New York also pleaded guilty to federal charges.
Davis was sentenced to 176 months in prison.
On Jan. 27, 2016, Gay was sentenced to 102 months in prison, and on Feb. 8, 2016, Hennix was sentenced to 171 months of imprisonment. Houston awaits sentencing.
The men have been ordered to pay restitution of more than $3.1 million, and have forfeited gemstones, jewelry, watches, a vehicle and more than $127,000 in cash seized from them at the time of their arrests.
U.S. officials said Forbes was involved in at least three other similar jewelry store robberies, including one that occurred in York, Pennsylvania in July 2012.
