Home-invasion victim speaks out as suspect heads to court

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — A suspect in a Bloomfield home invasion is scheduled to be arraigned in Newark Superior Court tomorrow morning, Friday, June 10. A grand jury indicted Jashua Price on May 25 on seven counts stemming from the 1:30 a.m. invasion of an Edison Street home on Feb. 6.

Price, 25, is alleged to have committed the invasion with two accomplices who remain at-large. The victim of the invasion was Louis Mondo, 26, who resides with his parents, three brothers and a sister. Except for Mondo’s youngest brother, Dominick, no one else in the family was aware the crime was taking place although all family members, except the sister, were home.

In an interview earlier this week, Mondo related his recollections of that night.
He said Dominick had opened the side door to the family’s second-story residence for three masked figures. Dominick thought the arrivals were only friends playing a prank because another brother, Joseph, was having a sleepover with his friends. One of those friends had recently left the sleepover and Dominick thought this person had returned with two others.

According to Mondo, one of the masked figures asked Dominick “Who lives here?” Dominick thought the person asking the question was a female because the voice was high-pitched. He innocently told this person that “they knew who lived here” and he began to walk back up the stairs. But he was pushed from behind.
Surprised, he asked, “Who’s here?” The person with the high-pitched voice, who was the only masked person to speak during the invasion, said to him, “You know who’s here.”

When they got to the kitchen, Dominick saw one of the masked intruders pull out a handgun. This person tried to put a bullet clip into it but twice was unable to do this. Mondo’s mother, Lucille, who was on the computer, could hear what was going on but thought it was some of the kids fooling around, making noise, and she called out to them to stop it. Her husband, Louis, was asleep.

Mondo said he came out of his bedroom, half-asleep, to investigate. He closed the door behind him because his girlfriend was in the room. The three masked people rushed into the hallway toward him.

“I guess they heard me open the door,” Mondo said. “At first, I thought it was my little brother’s friends messing around. I said, ‘Get out,’ and one of the people said, ‘Oh, you think this is a game?’ A second masked person pulled out a knife and a third person cocked a gun.”

The gun was pointed at him and the person with the high-pitched voice sprayed Mace into his face.

“Instincts came on and I started fighting with the guy with the knife,” Mondo said. “The others ran off. As I was wrestling with him, he dropped the knife and I pulled his mask off. I had never seen him before.”

This unmasked person was later identified as Price.
Mondo’s girlfriend, Christine, then came out of the bedroom, hearing the commotion.

“She said to me, ‘Why are you hitting him?’ and pulled me off him,” Mondo said.
Price ran from the house.

Mondo’s oldest brother, Sal, was outside smoking a cigarette. He was with his girlfriend. Someone called out to him, “They jumped Louie.” Sal, without shoes, ran off in the direction of the fleeing intruders. Christine ran after them, too, but they got away.

Lucille came out of her bedroom and saw her son’s face. It was bleeding and would later require six stitches. His nose had also been fractured during the fight. Lucille called 9-1-1. Bloomfield police and EMS arrived.

One of the intruders, as they had entered the home, had taken an iPhone from its charger. iPhones have a device which allows them to be tracked. According to Lucille, this was how Price was quickly apprehended. He was brought back to the Edison Street residence and identified. Mondo was taken to Clara Maass Hospital for medical attention. He is the grandson of Chubby Condito, the retired superintendent of maintenance for the Bloomfield Department of Public Works.

Price was indicted for conspiracy, armed robbery, burglary, aggravated assault, possession of a weapon for unlawful purpose, and resisting arrest. He remains incarcerated in Essex County Correctional Facility on $150,000 bail. He will be arraigned before Judge Martin Cronin. Essex County Assistant Prosecutor Meredith Mona will prosecute the case.