A 35-year-old man has been charged with attempted murder after allegedly striking a woman in the head with a baseball bat in the home they share in Willingboro Township.
Quamel Benton also faces charges of endangering an injured victim and five counts of neglecting a child.
The charges were announced by Burlington County Prosecutor LaChia L. Bradshaw and Willingboro Director of Public Safety Captain Ian Bucs. Benton was initially charged with aggravated assault and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose following his March 22 apprehension. At a detention hearing, he was ordered held pending trial and jailed in Burlington County.
The Prosecutor’s Office will prepare the case for a grand jury indictment. The investigation began March 21 when Willingboro police responded to a Raeburn Lane residence for a disturbance. Officers found an adult female with a severe head wound who was airlifted to a Camden hospital in critical but stable condition.
The investigation revealed Benton fled in the victim’s vehicle before police arrived, leaving young children in the home. He was apprehended in Toms River after a pursuit when his vehicle crashed into a utility pole.
In Ocean County, Benton faces charges of eluding and resisting arrest, trying to pull a teenage girl into his vehicle, and inappropriately grabbing and touching a woman in a store parking lot.
The Burlington County case is prosecuted by Assistant Prosecutor Jamie Hutchinson and was investigated by Willingboro Police and Prosecutor’s Office detectives.
