N.J. Serial Killer May Have Been Caught

If he's convicted of his alleged crime, a New Jersey man could be considered one of the nation's serial killers, authorities said.

Khalil Wheeler-Weaver, 20, of Orange has allegedly killed at least three women and tried to kill a fourth before he was arrested last year. Experts told nj.com that the allegations against him fit the definition of the term.

"I think this qualifies," Lawrence Kobilinsky, John Jay College's science department chairperson and a forensics expert, told nj.com.

The FBI's definition of a serial killer, or a "spree" murderer, is one who is responsible for two or more murders committed without a cooling-off period.

The FBI also has defined serial killing as the "unlawful killing of two or more victims by the same offender(s), in separate events."

Wheeler-Weaver is accused of killing three women within three months, according to nj.com. They are: 19-year-old Robin West, of Philadelphia, in Orange on Sept. 1; Joanne Brown, 33, in Orange on Oct. 22; and Sarah Butler, 20, of Montclair, on Nov. 22. He also allegedly attacked and sexually assaulted a fourth woman in Elizabeth in November.

Wheeler-Weaver has been charged with strangling Butler, a college student, and another woman in separate attacks in Newark and Montclair, NBC reported.

Wheeler-Weaver is scheduled to be arraigned on the new charges against him on March 13, and he remains in jail on $5 million bail.

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