Two men have been sentenced to five to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to a violent Halloween night home invasion at a Wilmington apartment complex, where masked intruders beat a sleeping resident with a blunt object and made off with a safe, cash, marijuana and the victim's watch. Selwyn Davis and Alston Allen, both 19, entered their pleas in New Hanover County Superior Court on August 13, closing out one chapter of a case that investigators believe was gang related.
According to Port City Daily, officers responded to Kerr Crossing Apartments around 11:30 p.m. on October 31, 2025, after masked men forced their way into the victim's apartment while he slept. Three masked suspects reportedly forced open the victim's door with a crowbar, and two of them appeared to be armed with handguns during the break-in. The victim was left injured, bloodied and beaten with a blunt object before the intruders fled with the safe, cash, marijuana and his watch.
Digital Evidence Built the Case Against Suspects
Investigators leaned heavily on cell phone records, along with videos and photographs, to link the men to the crime, the outlet reported. Searches of the suspects' vehicles and apartments turned up items relevant to the case, according to authorities, and surveillance footage reportedly captured Alston's car returning to an apartment at another complex after the break-in.
Kerr Crossing Apartments sits at 370-376 South Kerr Avenue near Randall Parkway, less than a mile from the University of North Carolina Wilmington campus, according to Zillow property listings for the complex, which is popular with local students. Investigators suspected early on that the break-in was gang-related, though the underlying dynamics that may have prompted a targeted attack near the UNCW campus corridor remain an open question.
Charges Scaled Back Ahead of Guilty Pleas
When law enforcement first announced arrests in November 2025, nearly three weeks after the Halloween incident, authorities had charged suspects with a wider array of felonies beyond burglary and robbery, including second-degree kidnapping, safecracking, assault inflicting serious injury and felony conspiracy, per the same account from Port City Daily's earlier coverage of the case. Those additional charges were narrowed by the time Davis and Allen entered their pleas, which is common as prosecutors adjust charges ahead of Superior Court dispositions.
Davis and Allen ultimately pleaded guilty to robbery with a dangerous weapon and first-degree burglary. Under North Carolina General Statute 14-87, robbery with a dangerous weapon is a Class D felony covering the taking of property using or threatening life with a firearm or other dangerous weapon, according to the Granados Law Group. First-degree burglary under General Statute 14-51 is likewise a Class D felony, defined as breaking and entering an occupied dwelling at night with intent to commit a felony or larceny, per Hatch, Little & Bunn LLP.
Why Prison Time Was Mandatory
North Carolina's structured sentencing guidelines require an active prison sentence for Class D felony convictions, meaning probation alone was not legally available to Davis or Allen once they pleaded guilty, according to the Powers Law Firm. Both men received five-to-seven-year active prison sentences as a result.
Two co-defendants in the case are not yet done with the court system. Torrelle Shaw-Johnson, who was 27 at the time of his November 2025 arrest, and Kenneth Broadus, arrested in December 2025 after court records linked him to the Halloween break-in according to WECT News, are scheduled to go on trial together in March 2027. How that trial resolves, and what it reveals about the gang dynamics investigators suspected from the start, remains unresolved.
A Multi-Agency Investigation
The case drew on a coordinated response involving the Wilmington Police Department's Gang Unit, the New Hanover County Sheriff's Office, the North Carolina Special Operations and Intelligence Unit, and NC Community Supervision, reflecting the scale of resources devoted to tracking down the suspects. The 18-year-old Davis was ultimately taken into custody at a local probation office when he was first arrested in November 2025.
The Davis and Allen pleas came during the same August session of New Hanover County Superior Court in which prosecutors secured a separate guilty plea from 20-year-old Jazya Monoe Muldrow-Green, sentenced to 30 to 48 months for an Easter Sunday stabbing in downtown Wilmington, according to WWAY TV. The overlapping cases point to a busy stretch of violent crime dispositions moving through the local court system this summer. Wilmington has grappled with other armed robbery cases in recent years, including a July 2025 incident in which police arrested a 16-year-old on C Street on robbery and firearm charges, as previously reported by Hoodline's earlier report.
