A jury found 22-year-old Andrew E. Johnson Jr. guilty of being part of a crime spree that included hitting a clerk in the head with a pipe and firing shots at a Wendy's.
CAMDEN -- A 22-year-old Pennsauken man was convicted Monday of carrying out a spree of armed robberies in Camden County with two other men in 2012.
Andrew E. Johnson Jr., of Pennsauken, was found guilty by a jury on two counts of armed robbery and three counts of conspiracy to commit robbery, among 25 total counts.
Authorities said Johnson was joined by two Pennsauken men -- Jarell A. Marson, 28, and Ricardo Rivera Jr., 23 -- in committing the robberies in both Pennsauken and Cherry Hill in August of 2012. Both Marson and Rivera Jr. pleaded guilty to robbery charges during a previous court appearance.
The trio started the string of robberies in Cherry Hill, when they attacked a clerk at a 7-Eleven on Haddonfield Road and Maple Avenue on Aug. 2 at about 1 a.m. with a pipe, striking him in the head.
The next target was in Pennsauken, where the men stopped at a Wendy's on Route 70 an hour and a half after the 7-Eleven robbery and fired shots at employees. No one was hurt.
Three days later, the trio were spotted outside a Cherry Hill 7-Eleven. The men aimed to rob the store, located on Wisteria Avenue and Cuthbert Boulevard, but the doors were locked because of a power outage. Marson and Rivera were captured after a short police chase, but Johnson escaped.
He was arrested two days later on Aug. 7, and was tied to Marson and Rivera by cellphone records, authorities said. Marson and Rivera's sentencing is set for Jan. 8, and Johnson's is set for Feb. 5.
Michelle Caffrey may be reached at mcaffrey@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @ShellyCaffrey. Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook.
