Neptune Suspect Admits Armed Robbery Spree

A Neptune 23-year-old faces the possibility of a lifetime in prison for the 24-hour armed robbery rampage that terrorized five shore towns and left a cab driver shot in 2012

In a Trenton federal courtroom, Quam Wilson today pleaded guilty to committing a Hobbs Act robbery and using a firearm to commit it, according to information from the office of New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman.

Wilson also admitted to several more armed robberies, which will be considered at sentencing. He was charged in March 2013 and was indicted the following September. Wilson entered guilty pleas to the first two counts.

Investigators said that the crime spree began in Asbury Park at about 5 AM on November 13, 2012, when Wilson robbed and shot a cabbie. The driver survived a bullet to the head.

Wilson today admitted taking the driver's identification, taxi keys and debit card, authorities said. He then robbed a Shell station in Ocean Township at gunpoint, and tried using the debit card at several banks before an employee at one branch seized the card and i-d and called police, authorities said.

According to investigators, Wilson used a handgun to hold up a Long Branch taxi stand around 9 PM that night, and an Exxon station in Red Bank and a Neptune Quick Chek in the early hours of November 14.

He was found in an attic in Asbury Park and arrested later that night.

The firearm charge to which Wilson pleaded guilty carries a maximum life prison term, minimum 10 years. The robbery charge is punishable by up to 20 years behind bars. Both carry possible fines as high as $250,000.