Former city resident enters guilty plea

BY CHRISTINE VARNO Staff Writer

BY CHRISTINE VARNO
Staff Writer

A former Long Branch resident has pleaded guilty to a shooting that occurred almost two years ago in Asbury Park.

Antonio Williams, 30, pleaded guilty Dec. 5 to aggravated assault by pointing a firearm and resisting arrest for the February 2005 shooting into a group of people.

Williams is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 8, according to a press release from the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office.

Williams is currently incarcerated at Northern State Prison on another matter, according to the Prosecutor’s Office.

The plea agreement calls for Williams to receive a three-year sentence in New Jersey State Prison with an 18-month period of parole ineligibility, according to the release.

The case was investigated by the Prosecutor’s Office and the Asbury Park Police Department.

According to the release, Williams exited a motor vehicle on Feb. 24, 2005, in Asbury Park, and fired seven shots from a semi-automatic handgun at several unknown individuals.

The defendant then fled the scene and was observed by an eyewitness exiting the vehicle and running in the basement of the parking garage of a nearby apartment complex, according to the release.

A handgun was later found in the basement of the garage and ballistics tests confirmed that the recovered handgun matched the seven shell casings found at the scene of the shooting, according to the release.

Williams was apprehended by members of the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Department and the Asbury Park Police Department on March 11, 2005.

At the time of his arrest, Williams struggled with the officers as they tried to process and interview him, according to the release.