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.
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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.