Two Durham men have been charged in a home invasion near Chapel Hill last week in which a woman was beaten and her husband was shot in the hand and a Person County home invasion in which a woman was sexually assaulted, authorities said Tuesday.
Jason O’Neal Brown, 36, of 919 Torredge Road, and Jodeci Mustaffa Gaddy, 25, of 4801 Danube St., were arrested Monday and were being held in the Person County jail. Brown is being held under $2 million bonds from each county, while Gaddy was being held under $1 million bonds from each county.
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Orange County deputies were called to a home at 5333 block of Lucas Farm Lane, near Chapel Hill, shortly after 2 a.m. Friday. When they arrived, they found a man suffering from a gunshot wound to the hand. His wife had been beaten during the incident, authorities said.
Investigators said the man was awakened by his wife screaming while she was being attacked by two intruders. The man was attacked when he tried to help her.
The couple told investigators that one man carried a backpack and the other had a handgun. They demanded money from the couple, but investigators said they don't believe anything was taken from the home.
A short time before that, a Person County woman reported being awakened in her Timberlake home by two men, one who pointed a gun at her, demanding guns and money. During the home invasion, the woman was sexually assaulted and struck in the face with the gun, authorities said. Her young child was in the home at the time of the assault but wasn't injured.
"She basically lay there for some amount of time, not knowing if they were still there, before she actually jumped out of a window with the child in her arms to run for her safety and to call 911," Person County Sheriff Dewey Jones said during a Tuesday afternoon news conference.
Investigators in both counties began comparing notes on their cases, Jones said, and a break in the case came Saturday, when a security camera near Northgate Mall in Durham recorded two men using a credit card stolen from the Timberlake woman.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Office also received a tip about a distinctive vehicle parked on the street near the home invasion. Deputies were familiar with the vehicle, which also was spotted in an area of where several cars were broken into earlier in the month, authorities said.
Based on the security camera footage and the tip, investigators were able to identify Brown and Gaddy and arrest them at the carwash on Guess Road in Durham where they work. Both men confessed to the two home invasions and the car break-ins in Orange and Person counties and in Hillsborough, authorities said.
The same vehicle noted by the tipster was near where the men were apprehended and was seized, authorities said.
"These crimes were particularly concerning because they were completely random," Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood said during the news conference. "Not just the fact that they were random, but the amount of violence used in each of these crimes shocked the conscience of our community. These people had no regard for life or property."
Brown and Gaddy targeted homes where lights were left on and doors left unlocked, Blackwood said, urging people to take simple precautions around their homes and cars to prevent crime.
After the arrests, search warrants were obtained for Brown's and Gaddy's residences. The amount of stolen property recovered from the homes required the use of a van and a large SUV to transport it to the Person County Sheriff’s Office, authorities said.
Investigators will try to match the property to larceny reports from the various jurisdictions, with the hope of returning the items to the affected victims and seeking charges in those cases, authorities said.
Brown and Gaddy are charged in Orange County with two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury, two counts of second-degree kidnapping, first-degree burglary, two counts of assault by pointing a gun and breaking and entering a motor vehicle.
Person County authorities have charged the two men with first-degree kidnapping, first-degree burglary, first-degree forcible sex offense, attempted first-degree rape, attempted first-degree murder, larceny and breaking and entering a motor vehicle.
More charges are pending, authorities said.
The investigation is ongoing, and anyone with information related to the cases is asked to contact Investigator Jeff Ray of the Orange County Sheriff's Office at 919-245-2975.