Home Invader Kills NJ Mom 2 Days After His Release From Jail, Cops Say

WOODBURY — A South Jersey man has been accused of returning to a home he once lived in as a foster child and killing a woman who was housesitting for her friend.

Brandon D. Wilson, 19, was charged last week in the savage slaying of Shawneeq M. Carter on Sept. 23.

The 26-year-old mother from Camden was in the Woodbury home with two children when Wilson showed up to try to rob or burglarize it, authorities said. Wilson used a piece of gym equipment to beat Carter to death, they said.

The Paulsboro man had been released from a Pennsylvania jail two days before the slaying.

He was already behind bars in Cape May County when he was charged with murder last week. Wilson was arrested Oct. 15 in Middle Township on burglary charges. While in custody there, investigators say he called his parents and tried to get them to get rid of evidence that may have tied him to the Woodbury slaying.

“Shawneeq was doing a favor for a friend. She was house-sitting,” Gloucester County Prosecutor Sean F. Dalton said last week. “She just happened to be there at the time he broke in.”

Dalton said physical evidence linking Wilson to the slaying was found on a window of the home, Carter’s shirt and the gym equipment.

Wilson also was seen on surveillance footage on Hopkins Street a night before the slaying.

Authorities say Wilson called his parents after investigators asked the jail to hand over the sneakers Wilson had been wearing when he was arrested.

Authorities say Wilson was familiar with the house because he had lived there for a few months with a family that had fostered him 2015. A year later, he was arrested, and later convicted, for trespassing at the home.

Dalton asked a Superior Court judge to keep Wilson locked up pending a trial on the new charges.

He was charged with first-degree murder; third-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose; fourth-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose; two counts of third-degree endangering the welfare of a child; second-degree burglary during which a death occurred; and third-degree hindering his own apprehension by asking his parents to dispose of the sneakers.

Investigators turned up two sneakers they said were still wet with cleaning solution.

The Townsquare News Network did not know Tuesday whether Wilson had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.