Brick Woman Admits Robbing Clerk At Knifepoint For Cash, Cigarettes

TOMS RIVER, NJ — A Brick Township woman has pleaded guilty to robbing a convenience store in Berkeley Township in 2024, the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office said Tuesday.

Jessica A. Napolitano, 38, pleaded guilty Monday to robbery and burglary before Superior Court Judge Kenneth T. Palmer in connection with two incidents that happened Oct. 15, Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said.

Authorities said Napolitano went into The Corner Store, a convenience store on Ocean Gate Drive in Berkeley Township, about 4:20 a.m. on Oct. 15, brandished a knife at the cashier and demanded money and cigarettes. The staff gave the woman cash and cigarettes and she took off, authorities said.

As Berkeley Township police and authorities continued to investigate, they learned a woman had thrown a rock through the front window of the Dollar General on Route 9 and had tried to get access to cigarettes in the store, but was not able to get to them, authorities said. That's when she went to The Corner Store, authorities said.

Officers were able to identify Napolitano as the person responsible for both incidents and arrested her in Lakewood, authorities said. She was taken to the Ocean County Jail but later released as a consequence of bail reform.

Napolitano, who is in the Ocean County Jail on unrelated charges, is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 26, the prosecutor's office said. Prosecutors will be seeking a seven-year prison sentence on the robbery charge and three years on the burglary charge, with the sentences to run concurrently, prosecutors said. The robbery sentence will be subject to the No Early Release Act, meaning she must serve 85 percent of the sentence she receives on that charge before becoming eligible for parole.