Timothy Forbes Pleads Guilty in $3M Jewelry Heist, Kidnapping

A violent home invasion, kidnapping, and $3 million jewelry store heist in Connecticut unraveled today as Timothy Forbes, 35, of Allentown, Pa., pleaded guilty in Bridgeport federal court. Forbes admitted his role in the April 11, 2013, armed robbery of Lenox Jewelers in Fairfield — a crime that began with the brutal abduction of four victims in Meriden.

At approximately 9:00 p.m. that night, Kasam Hennix, William Davis, Christopher Gay, and Jeffrey Houston — all masked, gloved, and two armed with handguns — broke into a Gravel Street apartment in Meriden. They bound the victims with duct tape, covered their heads with pillowcases and jackets, then forced two of them into a victim’s vehicle. Forbes arrived separately in his own car; Gay stayed behind to guard the two remaining hostages.

Hennix, Davis, and Houston drove the kidnapped employees to Lenox Jewelers, where they stole jewelry, watches, and loose diamonds with a total replacement value exceeding $3 million. After abandoning the victims — still bound — inside the store, the crew fled in the stolen vehicle and transferred to Forbes’ waiting car. A call was made to Gay: the hit was complete. They vanished across state lines.

Investigators revealed Forbes, Houston, and Gay had traveled from Pennsylvania to Connecticut multiple times in the weeks before the robbery, surveilling the victims’ routines. Forbes and Gay even planted a GPS tracker on one victim’s car to monitor movements. The five suspects were apprehended in May 2013 following a multi-state manhunt led by federal and local law enforcement.

Forbes pleaded guilty to one count of kidnapping, one count of interference with commerce by robbery, and one count of using a firearm during a crime of violence. He faces a mandatory minimum of seven years and up to life in prison at sentencing on April 13, 2017, before U.S. District Judge Robert N. Chatigny in Hartford. Hennix, Davis, and Gay have already been sentenced to 171, 176, and 102 months, respectively. Houston awaits sentencing.

Forbes is no stranger to violent crime. On March 23, 2016, he was sentenced to 14 years in the Middle District of Pennsylvania for a July 2012 jewelry store robbery in York, Pa., where a co-defendant shot and permanently disabled the store owner. The defendants in the Connecticut case have been ordered to pay over $3.1 million in restitution and have forfeited seized assets, including gemstones, watches, a vehicle, and $127,000 in cash. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Tracy Lee Dayton and Joseph Vizcarrondo, with investigation led by the U.S. Marshals Service, FBI, and local police departments in Fairfield, Meriden, and across Pennsylvania.