Teen Charged With Killing South Jersey House Sitter: Prosecutor

A Paulsboro man has been arrested in the murder of a 26-year-old South Jersey woman who was killed while house-sitting in September, authorities announced. Brandon D. Wilson, 19, is charged in connection with the death of Shawneeq M. Carter, of Camden. Carter was killed in a Woodbury home where she had been house-sitting.

An autopsy by the Gloucester County Medical Examiner's Office determined the cause of death was blunt force trauma and the manner of death was homicide.

“Shawneeq was doing a favor for a friend. She was house-sitting,” Gloucester County Prosecutor Sean F. Dalton said at a news conference on Friday. “She just happened to be there at the time he broke in.”

Dalton said Wilson’s intent was likely to rob the house. It's a house Wilson was familiar with, as he lived there as a foster child for less than a year back in 2015. About a month before the murder, he was arrested for unlawful trespass in the same house. He was found guilty of that offense and obstruction of justice for providing false information, Dalton said. He was released from jail two days before Carter's body was found.

Wilson was caught on surveillance video on Hopkins Street, where the house is located, the night before Carter was found dead, according to the probable cause statement.

Wilson is charged with first-degree murder; third-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose; fourth-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose; two counts of third-degree endangering the welfare of a child; second-degree burglary during which a death occurred and third-degree hindering his own apprehension, Gloucester County Prosecutor Sean F. Dalton announced on Friday.

Wilson was charged with hindering his own apprehension because he asked his parents to dispose of sneakers that may have been related to the murder, Dalton said. The endangering the welfare of a child charge refers to children who were home at the time of the murder. It was previously reported that although police found Carter’s body at about 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 23, her son and a cousin — both five years old — discovered her body a day earlier, but didn't seek help until the following day.

Wilson is already being held in Cape May County Jail on an unrelated offense. He has been served with complaints related to Carter's death, and the prosecutor's office will request that he be detained. The investigation remains ongoing.

Detectives discovered a shoe imprint on the rear door of the home during the course of the two-month investigation in which “approximately 30 search warrants were executed by members of the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office and the Woodbury City Police Department," according to Dalton.

From there, detectives learned that Wilson had called his parents to ask them to dispose of two pairs of his sneakers, Dalton said. This occurred after investigators asked Cape May Jail officials to remove the sneakers Wilson was wearing when incarcerated.

Detectives then seized two pairs of his sneakers during the execution of search warrants at two of Wilson's homes, Dalton said. They appeared to be wet from being cleaned with a solution.

Physical evidence linking Wilson to the crime was also found on an outside window as well as Carter's shirt and a piece of gym equipment that was used in the murder, according to Dalton.

He added that county and city detectives “worked tirelessly for almost two months in order to make this arrest,” and that his office and municipal police have made arrests in 95 percent of homicides that occurred in the county in the last 10 years.

Authorities had been offering a $5,000 reward for anyone who offers information that leads to the arrest and conviction of whoever was responsible for Carter's death. No mention was made of the reward on Friday.

See related: South Jersey Woman Killed While House Sitting: Prosecutor

Photo courtesy of family and friends of Shawneeq M. Carter