Man Indicted For Shooting Cab Driver, Robbing Long Branch Taxi Stand at Gunpoint

By Christopher Sheldon

A Neptune Township man has been indicted by a federal grand jury after being charged in several armed robberies he allegedly committed during a 24-hour time period last November. 

Quam Wilson, 23, is charged in the 11-count indictment with five counts of committing a Hobbs Act robbery, five counts of using a firearm during a crime of violence and one count of possession of a firearm by a previously convicted felon. 

Wilson engaged in a crime spree that began at approximately 5 a.m. on Nov. 13, 2012, when he shot and robbed a cab driver in Asbury Park. The cab drver was hospitalized for gunshot wound to head but but survived. Wilson took the cab driver’s identification and debit card during the robbery.

He then robbed an Ocean Township Shell gas station attendant at gunpoint at 7 a.m. and later that morning, he attempted to obtain money from the cab driver’s bank account from several local banks.

Suspecting that a theft was taking place, a bank employee confiscated the identification and debit card from Wilson and contacted police, according to a release from the United States Attorney District of America.

At about 9 p.m. Wilson robbery at a Long Branch taxi stand at gunpoint and early the next day, he committed an armed robbery at a Red Bank Exxon gas station.

A short time later, Wilson entered a Quick Check convenience store in Neptune Township. Again, he pointed a handgun at a cashier and demanded money. Wilson was arrested at approximately 10 p.m. by several police officers in Asbury Park, where he had been hiding in an attic. 

Wilson was initially arrested and charged by federal criminal complaint with the conspiracy and firearms counts on March 13, 2013. He appeared on June, 3 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lois H. Goodman, who remanded him to federal custody pending trial. Wilson will be arraigned on the indictment on a date to be determined.

Each count of Hobbs Act robbery carries a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison. The charge of using a firearm during a crime of violence carries a maximum potential penalty of life in prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison for a conviction on discharging a firearm in connection with robbing the cab driver, and 25 years for each subsequent count of conviction, each of which must run consecutively to one another and to any other prison term.  The charge of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon carries a maximum potential penalty of 10 years in prison. Each of the counts also carries a maximum $250,000 fine.