WEST CHESTER — The Chester County District Attorney’s Office and Easttown police on Wednesday announced the arrests of three Philadelphia men they allege committed an armed robbery at a businessman’s home in the wealthy Main Line community.
In a press conference at the county Justice Center, District Attorney Chris de Barrena-Sarobe spoke to the media flanked by more than a dozen law enforcement officials to lay out the case behind the arrests of Louis Armstrong, Julio Jaje Mendoza and Axel Ramon Reyes.
The robbery was a “truly terrifying crime” that involved “one of the greatest nightmares that anyone could ever imagine — intruders in your home,” he said. The homeowners were threatened at gunpoint, told their daughter had been kidnapped, blindfolded and driven to the family business in their own car, and eventually left tied in their own attic as the burglars escaped with cash, jewelry, designer clothes and other items, including three guns, two of them antiques.
The arrests on Monday and Tuesday were made possible by a combination of “good old-fashioned police work,” in de Barrena-Sarobe’s words, cutting-edge technology and forensic electronics work, and missteps by the alleged robbers, according to court documents. The pair not only kept photos of themselves at the scene of the robbery, and later brazenly showed off items and cash taken from the house during the robbery, and wore clothing identified by the victims, but their theft of a pair of earbuds allowed police to trace them.
De Barrena-Sarobe credited a diverse team of agencies that worked together to investigate the crime and make the arrests, including the FBI, Tredyffrin police, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office. “Our team put together a tremendous amount of evidence” to solve the case. “We used every tool in our tool box.”
Even though it was the titular setting for the gritty television crime drama, “Mare of Easttown,” the township of about 10,000 residents along the county’s eastern edge has historically had little violent crime of the sort de Barrena-Sarobe spoke of. In 2023, the township recorded only 53 serious offenses, according to state police figures, including one robbery, seven burglaries and 34 thefts. By comparison, nearby Tredyffrin had 254 major crimes that year.
“For us, this is something we generally don’t get,” said Easttown Chief of Police David Obzud. “That’s why we rely on everyone around us.”
Armstrong, 20, Mendoza, 21, and Reyes, also 21, are each charged with multiple counts of felony robbery, burglary, theft, kidnapping, unlawful restraint, false imprisonment, terroristic threats, simple assault and possession of an instrument of crime. Armstrong and Reyes are being held at Chester County Prison on $2.5 million and $2 million bail, respectively, awaiting preliminary hearings before Magistrate District Judge MacKenzie Smith.
In a detailed 11-page arrest affidavit, the two lead investigators in the case, Chester County Detective Steven Parkinson and Easttown Detective Kevin Price, laid out both the circumstances of the robbery and the efforts made to track down the alleged perpetrators.
On Jan. 8 at about 4:25 a.m., Easttown Township Police were called to a home on South Leopard Road in the Berwyn section of the township for the report of a home invasion robbery. The victims of the crime, homeowners who were not identified by name in the document, told them that they had been awoken around 2 a.m. by three men, all dressed in black and wearing masks and gloves. One had an assault rifle and the other two carried handguns, they said.
The intruders demanded to know the location of their safe and money, and seemed to know details of the house and property, and told the pair they had their daughter — showing them a photo of her on a smartphone. (It is unclear how they obtained the photo, and officials said the woman was never in danger.) They threatened to “blow their brains out” if they did not comply.
De Barrena-Sarobe said that investigators had not established clearly how the group, led by Mendoza, targeted the family, how they had gotten into the home, or how they knew that there might be cash and valuables there. “The group had done some homework,” he said. “They made an educated guess that they could get a lot of valuables from the house.”
In hopes of getting the men out of the house, the husband told them that his money was located at his business on Central Avenue in Berwyn. The men blindfolded the couple, tied their hands behind them and drove them in their car, a 2016 Mercedes, to the business location. There, the husband gave them three envelopes with $19,500 in cash.
The men then drove the victims back to their home and ransacked the house, looking for more cash and valuables. They eventually found $8,000 in cash, a pair of Apple AirPod earphones, $2,000 worth of jewelry, and $2,000 in clothing. They also took a Tokarev 7.62 semi-automatic pistol and two vintage muskets.
The men tied the two with a drapery cord in the attic and fled in their Mercedes.
The investigators were able to track the robbers after they left the area, however, using automated License Plate Readers, or LPR, that scan plates at various locations. The Mercedes was captured on an LPR in Radnor at 4:24 a.m., then on the entrance to the Blue Route in Villanova at 4:25 a.m., and again at the intersection of Ridge Avenue and West Huntington Park Avenue in Philadelphia a short while later.
The detectives were also able to use the “Find My” software from Apple to track the AirPods that had been stolen. The right one was tracked to Ridge Avenue and the left to North 26th Street, both in Philadelphia. The AirPod case was eventually found at that location.
On Jan. 10, police recovered the Mercedes in the 400 block of East Ontario Street in Philadelphia. From it, Chester County Detective Christopher Bucci was able to get fingerprints from Mendoza and Reyes, who police later learned are cousins.
A street camera picked up footage of Mendoza parking the Mercedes on Ontario Street around 1:50 a.m. on Jan. 10. Using the same camera, police saw Mendoza going back to a home on Weymouth Street in the city. Police raided the home on Jan. 24, and found Mendoza, Reyes, Mendoza’s son and brother there.
Searching the home, the investigators found clothing from the home, a pill bottle with the victim’s stolen rings, and $13,351 in cash. They also seized cell phones belonging to Mendoza and Reyes. Examining them, they discovered text messages they said showed the pair’s involvement in the robbery.
Beginning on Jan. 3, the pair exchanged messages in which Mendoza enlisted Reyes in the robbery and discussed involving others. On Jan. 5, a Friday, Reyes wrote to Mendoza, “Sunday?” Mendoza replied, “Factzz. I’ll be ready,” his cousin responded, according to the affidavit.
“I got black clothes for you to (wear) if you don’t got none,” Mendoza texted. “All you need is a mask.”
Finally, when the investigators pulled more data from Mendoza’s and Reyes’ phones, they found photographs and videos that allegedly showed the robbery from inside the victims’ home. One showed a person holding the husband’s cell phone and another showed the man with the assault rifle. The detectives said that the clothing shown in the photos was found at the house on Weymouth Street.
One of the photos also showed a man believed to be one of the robbers sitting on top of the hood of the victims’ Mercedes, flashing a “thumb fan” of cash.
Reyes, who was arraigned at the Chester County Justice Center Wednesday after turning himself in, is represented by defense attorney Melissa McCafferty of West Chester. She declined to comment when contacted. It was unclear who is representing Mendoza, who was awaiting arraignment in the county in custody in Philadelphia on other charges, or Armstrong.
De Barrena-Sarobe said that there was some evidence the men might be involved in another robbery in Tredyffrin, and asked anyone with information to call Easttown police at 610-341-9780 or Chester County Detectives at 610-344-6880.
To contact staff writer Michael P. Rellahan call 610-696-1544.
