Trio headed to trial in $700 Tullytown extortion plot

Posted: Wednesday, February 27, 2013 

Three 20-somethings are headed to trial in Bucks County Court after waiving their preliminary hearing Tuesday in a extortion and kidnapping plot involving an alleged drug deal gone wrong.

Shawn Theresa Gruber, 22, Nicole Gruber, 20, both of Falls, and David Sherman, 21, of Bristol Township allegedly held another woman against her will and threatened to kill her unless her mother paid $700, Tullytown police said.

That was the amount allegedly given to the daughter by Shawn Gruber to buy drugs at a local supermarket Nov. 26. But the daughter told the trio that the dealer ripped her off, police added.

The mom told police that she received a call from her daughter’s cellphone demanding she bring the money to the nearby Taco Bell in Tullytown. The mother was told if she didn’t bring the money within 10 minutes, the defendants would “blow her daughter’s head off,” according to court papers.

David Serman, Shawn Gruber, Nicole Gruber 

A short time later, the defendants allegedly called the mother and asked if the money had been left in the woman’s bathroom at the Taco Bell as they demanded. The mom replied that she was trying to get the money, but didn’t have that much cash.

Tullytown police contacted the Bucks County DA’s office, and county detectives then wiretapped the cellphone calls, police said. The mom called her daughter’s cellphone again and Shawn Gruber allegedly answered and wanted to know if the money was dropped off.

The mother said she could get only $400 now and the rest on Monday, police said. In another phone call, the suspects told the mother they’d allow her daughter to go home and collect the $400.

But Tullytown police were waiting when the car arrived. The daughter got out of the car and went to her home, where she told police she had been held against her will. Police arrested the trio still waiting in their car.

The daughter told police that the suspects, while driving around in their car, made her strip naked so they could search her clothes for missing money, police said.

All three face charges of unlawful restraint and false imprisonment. Sherman and Nicole Gruber also face conspiracy charges.

Shawn Gruber faces additional charges of criminal use of a cell phone, theft to extort, possession of a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia, and terroristic threats. She also waived charges Tuesday in a separate case in which she allegedly sold $20 worth of marijuana on Jan. 5, while out on bail in the extortion case.

The Grubers are free after posting bail; Sherman remains in Bucks County prison in lieu of 10 percent of $75,000 bail.

Jo Ciavaglia: 215-949-4181; email: jciavaglia@phillyBurbs.com; Twitter: @jociavaglia