FREEHOLD, N.J. — A Monmouth County jury has found a Long Branch man guilty on 18 charges stemming from an armed home invasion and fatal car crash that killed a passenger during a police pursuit, prosecutors announced Friday.
Altonia D. Williams, 47, faces the possibility of life in state prison after being convicted of armed robbery, felony murder, aggravated manslaughter, vehicular homicide, and a series of other offenses tied to an August 2023 incident that began before dawn in a residential neighborhood.
Just before 4 a.m. on August 14, Long Branch police responded to a home on Narragansett Avenue after reports that a man had entered armed and demanded money. The suspect, later identified as Williams, fled the scene in a white BMW and crashed into a responding police cruiser moments later.
Williams ran from the burning wreckage, abandoning his front-seat passenger, 38-year-old Tracee Blount of Long Branch. Officers pulled her from the vehicle, but she was later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
Police located Williams hiding in a nearby bush with a loaded handgun. Investigators later determined he had been intoxicated on marijuana at the time of the crash.
18-count conviction includes felony murder, vehicular homicide
The case was brought before a Monmouth County Grand Jury in December and proceeded to a four-week trial that ended with guilty verdicts on multiple charges across all degrees. The verdict was delivered in the courtroom of Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Joseph W. Oxley.
The charges included seven second-degree crimes, two third-degree crimes, and five fourth-degree crimes. Williams was represented by Middletown-based defense attorney Shane Paugh.
Sentencing is scheduled for Wednesday, September 17, and Williams remains in custody awaiting his fate.
