Report: Accused Home Invader a Career Criminal Thanks to Plea Deals

A plea deal: That's why a career criminal was not in jail and free to allegedly commit the June 21 Millburn home invasion caught on surveillance video that has left many people in Essex County in fear, NJ.com reports.

And local officials from both parties say something must be done to keep dangerous criminals behind bars.

Shawn Custis, the 42-year-old man charged in a Millburn home invasion, has a rap sheet that shows convictions for at least a dozen felonies since 1988 for crimes ranging from burglary to assault to forgery.

The article said he has fled from a halfway house and had his parole revoked numerous times. And in March 2012, being held after pleading guilty to multiple burglaries, his parole request was denied because he seemed "committed to a life of crime." Still, Custis employed a plea deal that freed him just before Christmas.

Officials, including state Sen. Richard Codey (D-Essex) and Assemblyman Anthony Bucco (R-Morris) are calling for new laws to increase penalties for breaking and entering, the article said.

Such a move is in the works: On June 26, Assembly Republican Leader Jon Bramnick introduced legislation that, if enacted, would upgrade the penalties for a home invasion from a third-degree to second-degree offense calling for a 5-to 10-year prison term and a fine of up to $150,000. Additionally, the offender would have to serve at least 85 percent of that sentence.

Custis, who was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in 1991 of a similar home invasion where he threw a woman and her child down a flight of stairs, has pleaded not guilty to the June home invasion.