Prostitution, Gunshots, Man Hiding In The Closet: Inside Bizarre NJ Home Invasion

POINT PLEASANT, NJ — A California couple accused in a home invasion burglary wound up at the Point Pleasant home after the woman was hired as a prostitute by a friend of the home's resident, according to court documents filed in the case.

Jaheim Wilson, 23, and Oleyah J. Brown, 21, both of Stockton, California, have been charged with home invasion burglary in the Aug. 7 incident, the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office said. The two remain in the Ocean County Jail pending detention hearings that are set for Friday, after their hearings were postponed on Wednesday.

Additional charges have been filed against both, an assistant prosecutor said Wednesday.

Wilson and Brown are accused of kicking in the door of a home on Barton Avenue shortly after 1:30 a.m. on Aug. 7 then taking items belonging to the resident, the prosecutor's office said. Wilson is accused of firing a handgun outside the home before the pair left, authorities said.

According to the probable cause affidavit filed in the case, the resident told police he was playing a video game when he heard the banging as the two tried to kick the door in. He closed a door separating the room he was in from the living room connected to the kitchen and called 911.

The victim later said the friend ran into the house to tell him a guy was coming to the house with a gun, and then ran out of the house.

Authorities then learned that the friend of the victim had asked permission to use the victim's home to meet with a female prostitute the friend had hired online. The prostitute was identified as Brown, and the friend assumed Wilson was her pimp, according to the affidavit.

Authorities tried to track the friend down at the home he shares with his parents, but later discovered the friend had actually never left the house while Wilson and Brown were breaking in, according to the affidavit. Wilson and Brown never tried to go farther than the kitchen, according to the affidavit.

The friend "was ultimately found within the residence, sleeping in a closet in (the victim's) bedroom," the affidavit says. "Upon being removed from the closet, (name redacted) was extremely upset and worried, having difficulty providing clear information."

The friend went on to tell authorities, both in an interview at the home and in a follow-up interview the next day that he had ordered a prostitute via a website and was communicating with the woman by text message. He met up with Brown at the parking lot of the Idle Hour on Route 88, and when Brown arrived with Wilson driving her, he got into their vehicle to talk for a bit before taking them to his friend's house.

At the house, the friend and Brown went into the living room connected to the kitchen, next to the room where the victim was playing video games.

"(He) stated multiple times that he requested the company of the female not for 'sex' but to just spend time with him," the affidavit said.

He paid $150 and gave Brown an ounce of marijuana that she took outside to Wilson. At that point, the friend told authorities, Brown was "beginning to get 'weird' ... typing on her phone constantly and he began to believe she was communicating with the male" who drove them to the house, the affidavit says.

The friend told police Brown said she wanted to leave, and he asked for his money back since they had not spent much time together. She agreed, he told authorities. He followed Brown out the back door as she left, and as they reached the fence between the back yard and the driveway, the friend said he heard Brown shout "get the gun." That's when the friend ran back inside and locked the door, according to the affidavit.

The friend and the victim then locked the door between the living room and the room where the victim was playing video games, the friend told authorities.

"When asked why he had been hiding in the closet for so long instead of speaking with police ... (the friend) advised that he was frightened, did not expect the police to be there that long, and ultimately fell asleep in the closet," according to the affidavit.

Authorities found Brown and Wilson by having an undercover officer contact her to arrange a meeting at the Clarion hotel in Toms River on Aug. 7. When Wilson and Brown arrived, Wilson got out and started walking to the hotel, then ran back to the car and tried to drive away. The two were identified as matching surveillance video from the Point Pleasant house and arrested, the affidavit said.

After they were arrested, Brown told authorities that she and Wilson, who is her boyfriend, had started driving cross country in Wilson's Honda about a month earlier. She also told authorities she has been a sex worker since she was 17 and advertises on a multitude of websites, the affidavit said.

She said she and the man who hired her agreed on the fee of $150, and she told authorities that when they got to the house, he was unable to perform sexually and "became agitated when the agreed upon time limit of 15 minutes elapsed," the affidavit says.

Brown said that when she tried to leave, the man blocked the door so she tried to call Wilson, the affidavit said. Brown and the man went outside and she told authorities she said to Wilson, "Get him," as the friend ran back into the house.

She acknowledged herself and Wilson kicking in the door and said they took a bottle of Tito's Handmade Vodka before leaving the house. She denied knowing that Wilson had a gun, the affidavit said.

According to the affidavit, Wilson was seen on surveillance video holding a firearm as they kicked in the door, and that the weapon appeared to have an extended magazine, which is illegal in New Jersey.

Video also shows Wilson going to the driver's door of a dark sedan that appeared to be a Honda, opening it and saying to an unidentified occupant "you good?" before firing the handgun. The video showed Wilson "reaching over the door of the vehicle and a loud 'bang' is heard and a flash is seen coming from the hand of the driver, indicating the firearm ... was fired," according to the affidavit. It was fired in the general direction of the house, the affidavit said.

Wilson and Brown both were charged with home invasion burglary on Aug. 8, and Wilson additionally was charged with possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and unlawful possession of a weapon, prosecutors said.

According to Ocean County Corrections records, Brown has since been charged additionally with transporting a weapon and illegal possession of ammunition/magazine. Wilson has been charged with transporting a weapon and illegal possession of ammunition/magazine, along with resisting arrest by physical force or violence.