Wilmington hammer attack, jewelry heist lands man decades in prison

A man convicted of assaulting a Wilmington jewelry store owner with a hammer during a 2022 heist has been sentenced to 40 years in prison.

Calvin Ushery, 41, was previously found guilty of assault, robbery and a weapons charge for the violent theft of jewelry from the former Solid Gold Jewelers store on Ninth Street in downtown Wilmington.

State prosecutors moved to declare Ushery a habitual offender based on prior felony convictions and Judge Charles Butler sentenced him to four decades behind bars Tuesday morning, according to a Department of Justice spokesperson.

The violent nature of the robbery drew national attention after surveillance video from inside the store was circulated by the defendant’s family shortly after the heist.

The victim, who was 67 at the time, was in the process of opening the store when he was attacked. He was held by the throat, at gunpoint, pistol-whipped and kicked. Once on the ground, the robber returned to him as he cleared the store, striking him multiple times including with a hammer.

The jewelry store owner spent four days in the intensive care unit following the attack, and his son testified in court that he continues to suffer memory loss, cannot drive and is not the same person he was before the attack.

THE BACK STORY: 'Just inhumane': Family of man attacked in brutal Wilmington robbery speaks out

Multiple trials for a conviction

Ushery was tried for the heist twice. The state’s first attempt to convict him last year ended with jurors deadlocked and unable to render a verdict in 2023.

Leading up to his second trial, Ushery rejected two plea deals offered by prosecutors: one that would cap their recommended sentence at 25 years and another that would see them recommend 20 years of imprisonment, according to prosecutors' in-court statements ahead of trial.

Evidence presented to the jury by prosecutors in the second trial included surveillance footage of a man they said was Ushery seeking to sell large amounts of jewelry in two local pawn shops a week after the heist.

The operator of one of those jewelry stores was alarmed by the wares and called the police. Shortly after, officers patrolling the city saw a man who matched the description of the man seeking to sell the suspect jewelry.

It was Ushery, who was carrying hundreds of pieces of jewelry in bags and had just sold $300 worth of it to a woman outside a local gas station. Before he was arrested, the woman grabbed her money back as well as his phone, prosecutors said in court. A man associated with the jewelry store testified that the items recovered on Ushery were from the store.

Long sentence

Prosecutors requested the judge sentence Ushery to 52 years in prison.

In a memo to the judge, they cited his lack of remorse, the excessive cruelty of the crime and the vulnerability of the victim, as well as previous times Ushery had been arrested.

WHAT HAPPENED: Jury reaches verdict in 2nd trial on violent hammer attack during Wilmington jewelry heist

They moved to declare him a habitual offender based on prior violent felony convictions that included carjacking, robbery, kidnapping, carrying a concealed deadly weapon and theft of a firearm, according to court documents.

The declaration increases the maximum and minimum punishments available to the judge for the jewelry store conviction.

The attorney representing Ushery did not respond to a request for comment.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Delaware jewelry store heist, hammer attack conviction leads to prison