MILLBURN, NJ — Acting Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn A. Murray announced June 29 that Shawn Custis, 45, of Newark was sentenced to life in prison, plus five years, by presiding Essex County Criminal Division Judge Ronald Wigler for brutally assaulting a mother during a home invasion robbery.
On June 1, an Essex County jury convicted Custis of aggravated assault, endangering the welfare of a child, robbery, burglary, criminal restraint and theft. He was acquitted of attempted murder. On June 29, Wigler imposed a life sentence for the robbery, assault and related charges and an additional five years for endangering the welfare of a child.
On June 21, 2013, Custis broke into the victim’s Millburn home — near the Maplewood border — where he assaulted her and stole various jewelry items and a cell phone from the residence. Custis kicked, punched and threw her down the basement stairs as her 3-year-old daughter sat on the living-room sofa watching and her 18-month-old son was asleep in an upstairs bedroom.
Custis will not be eligible for parole until he has served at least 85 percent of his sentence. Under New Jersey law, a life sentence is 75 years. Custis would have to serve at least 63 years and 9 months, or 85 percent, before he would be eligible for parole. Therefore, he is not eligible for release until he is 108 years old.
“There is no place in a free society for the kind of brutality and violence that the defendant inflicted upon the victim in this case. We are grateful that this sentence will ensure the defendant can never harm innocent women and children again,” Assistant Prosecutor Jamel Semper, who tried the case with Assistant Prosecutor Olajide Araromi, said in a press release.
Custis, who is originally from Camden, was adjudicated delinquent twice as a juvenile. As an adult, he has been arrested 38 times and has had 17 prior felony convictions, not including the current case. He has been prosecuted in Essex, Middlesex, Union, Burlington, Camden and Gloucester counties — most of which were for burglary, theft and a prior home invasion involving a woman with an 18-month-old baby. In that case, he also threw the woman and the baby down the stairs.
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