Teaneck Man Arrested for Conspiring to Kill Burglary Accomplice

A Bergen County man was arrested on murder conspiracy charges for allegedly planning to kill a burglary accomplice.

William “Christopher” Collins, 41, of Teaneck, was arrested after detectives from the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office Special Investigation Squad received information in July that Collins was conspiring to have one of his co-defendants from a previous burglary investigation murdered before the case could be adjudicated, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said.

In December 2013, a multi-jurisdictional task force consisting of detectives from the Special Investigation Squad of the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office and several Bergen County municipal police departments arrested Collins, Jeffrey Whitaker, Steven Wilson, Davae Harrison and a 17-year-old male juvenile after investigating a series of residential burglaries throughout Bergen County.

The arrests came after task force initiated physical surveillance on Whitaker, who was a person of interest, when a residential burglary consistent with the pattern of burglaries being investigated was committed on Dec. 22, 2013 in Teaneck.

The aforementioned defendants then traveled to New York where they allegedly sold stolen jewelry to a jewelry store before heading back to New Jersey, where they were stopped and arrested. The jewelry was confirmed to be taken from the Dec. 22 burglary in Teaneck.

The current investigation revealed that Collins had approached another individual to murder one of his co-defendants in exchange for later payment. Collins had also taken a number of specific steps towards facilitating the murder plot, Molinelli said.

Collins is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit murder, a crime of the 1st degree. It is not known which co-defendant Collins was planning against.

Investigators believe that additional charges will be forthcoming as the investigation continues.