TRENTON, N.J. - A federal grand jury in Trenton, N.J., returned an indictment today charging a Neptune Township, N.J., man with shooting a cab driver during a 24-hour run of armed robberies in New Jersey shore-area towns, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
Quam Wilson, 23, is charged in the 11-count indictment with five counts of committing a Hobbs Act robbery, five counts of using a firearm during a crime of violence and one count of possession of a firearm by a previously convicted felon.
Wilson was initially arrested and charged by federal criminal complaint with the conspiracy and firearms counts on March 13, 2013. He appeared on June 3, 2013, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lois H. Goodman, who remanded him to federal custody pending trial. Wilson will be arraigned on the indictment on a date to be determined.
According to the indictment unsealed today and other documents filed in this case:
Wilson engaged in a crime spree that began at approximately 5:00 a.m. on Nov. 13, 2012, when he shot and robbed a cab driver in Asbury Park. The victim, who survived, sustained a single gunshot wound to the head and was taken to Jersey Shore University Medical Center. Wilson took the cab driver’s identification and debit card during the robbery.
Wilson then proceeded to a Shell gas station located in Ocean Township at approximately 7:00 a.m. There, he approached a gas station attendant and, while brandishing a handgun, robbed him of cash and fled the area.
Later that morning, Wilson attempted to obtain money from the cab driver’s bank account from several area banks. Suspecting that a theft was taking place, a bank employee confiscated the identification and debit card from Wilson and contacted police.
At approximately 9:00 p.m. that same day, Wilson committed an armed robbery at a taxi stand in Long Branch, again while brandishing a handgun.
During the early morning hours of the next day, Nov. 14, 2012, Wilson robbed an Exxon gas station in Red Bank at gunpoint.
A short time later, Wilson entered a Quick Check convenience store in Neptune Township. Again, he pointed a handgun at a cashier and demanded money.
Wilson was arrested at approximately 10:00 p.m. by several police officers in Asbury Park, where he had been hiding in an attic.
Each count of Hobbs Act robbery (Counts One, Three, Five, Seven and Nine) carries a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison. The charge of using a firearm during a crime of violence (Counts Two, Four, Six, Eight and Ten) carries a maximum potential penalty of life in prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison for a conviction on Count Two (which charges discharging a firearm in connection with robbing the cab driver), and 25 years for each subsequent count of conviction, each of which must run consecutively to one another and to any other prison term. The charge of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon (Count Eleven) carries a maximum potential penalty of 10 years in prison. Each of the counts also carries a maximum $250,000 fine.
U.S. Attorney Fishman praised special agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Thomas J. Cannon, with the investigation. He also thanked the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Acting Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni, Asbury Park Police Department, Ocean Township Police Department, Long Branch Police Department, Neptune Township Police Department and the United States Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force for their excellent work in the investigation and apprehension of Wilson.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney R. Joseph Gribko of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Trenton.
The charges and allegations contained in the indictment are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
13-354
Defense counsel: Edward Bertuccio Esq. Eatontown, N.J.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
