EAST BRUNSWICK — Police have charged a township man with sexually assaulting a South Brunswick woman who died later as the result of a drug overdose.
Abei Villafane, 26, of Daniel Place, was charged Sept. 10 after a six-month investigation into the death of the 23-year-old woman from the Monmouth Junction section.
East Brunswick police were called to the Daniel Place residence at 12:20 p.m. March 20 on a report that a woman who had been staying overnight at the residence was found unconscious and not breathing.
Officers arriving at the scene immediately started cardiopulmonary resuscitation and attempted to revive the victim with a portable defibrillator. The East Brunswick Rescue Squad and Med-Rescue 1 paramedics responded and continued lifesaving efforts and transported the woman to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, New Brunswick, where she was later pronounced dead, according to East Brunswick Police Sgt. Paul Natalicchio.
An autopsy conducted by the Middlesex County Medical Examiner’s Office revealed that the woman had died of an accidental overdose.
An investigation headed up by Detective Sgt. Kevin Zebro of the East Brunswick Police High Tech Crimes Unit and reviewed by Assistant Prosecutor Nicole Albert of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office determined that Villafane allegedly sexually assaulted the victim prior to her death, and took inappropriate photographs of her without her permission. Villafane posted the inappropriate photographs on the Internet, according to police.
Villafane was charged with aggravated sexual assault and two counts of invasion of privacy. He was held at the Middlesex County Adult Correction Center, North Brunswick, with bail set at $150,000.