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UPDATE: Linden Man Charged With Attempted Murder Of Township Woman, $500,000 Bail Set

Police allege Wilson stabbed Franklin High School senior and beat her with a barbell

Wilson Winston

Winston Wilson Jr. 
Photo: Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office

A 24-year-old Linden man arrested for brutally stabbing and beating a township woman with a barbell last weekend remains in Somerset County Jail on $500,000 cash bail.

Winston Wilson Jr., also known as “Jesus,” was charged with 1st Degree Attempted Murder,  1st Degree Robbery,  two counts of 3rd Degree Possession of a Weapon for an Unlawful Purpose and 2nd Degree Unlawful Possession of a Handgun.

Wilson’s bail was set the afternoon of April 29 during his arraignment in front of  Superior Court Judge Robert Reed, sitting in Somerville.

Reed also prohibited Wilson from any contact with his victim if he makes bail, and precluded him from going within 1,000 feet of her Vanderbilt Avenue home.

Police responded to a call at the Vanderbilt Avenue home at about 6:30 a.m. April 26 when they found the 18-year-old woman outside of the home and suffering from stab wounds on her arms and torso and head trauma. Life-saving measures were taken, and the woman was transported to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, New Brunswick, for emergency surgery.

The woman, who has not yet been identified, remains in critical condition, police said.

In a complaint filed in the incident, Somerset County Prosecutor’s Detective Will Federico stated that the victim told police that her attacker was named “Jesus,” and that he has the New Jersey Devils logo tattooed on his neck and teardrops tattooed on his face.

Click here to see the complaint.

A car stolen from the victim was found in the Rivendell Apartment complex in Edison, Federico wrote, and, later, so was Winston.

Federico said that a Sony Playstation stolen from the victim’s home was recovered in the Edison apartment, as was a handgun. Wilson, Federico wrote, did not have a permit for the gun.

Wilson told police that he answers to the name of “Jesus,” that he was in the victim’s home of the day of the assault, that he’d handled a knife and a barbell in the home, and drove the victim’s car from her house to the apartment complex when he left, Federico wrote.

Federico wrote that at first, Wilson denied assaulting the victim, then later said he could not remember if he did.

Wilson was arrested without incident at about 10:50 p.m. April 28 at the Edison apartments, police said.

Police have not released a motive for the attack, but Somerset County Prosecutor Geoffrey Soriano said in a release about the arrest that the attack was isolated and the victim, a senior at Franklin High School, was the intended target. Wilson and the victim knew each other, Soriano said in the release.

Police have determined that while the victim was alone at the time of the attack, others were in the house earlier.

The investigation is active, and police ask that anyone with information on the attack contact the Franklin Township Police Department at (732) 873-2300, the Somerset County Prosecutors Office Major Crimes Unit at (908) 231-7100, or the Somerset County Crime Stoppers’ Tip Line at 1-888-577-TIPS (8477) or online at www.888577tips.org or www.scpo.net and click on either “Crime Stoppers” or “TIPS HOTLINE”. All Crime Stopper tips will be kept confidential.

Somerset County Prosecutor Geoffrey Soriano said in a release that the investigation and arrest was a collaborative effort between the Franklin Township Police Department and the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office, with assistance from the Edison Police Department and Special Agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

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