A Buena man was ordered held in jail Friday, after his son connected him to a first-degree robbery in Margate last year.
William Casper Sr., 56, is accused of accompanying his son and woman to a home in the 9600 block of Amherst Avenue to collect a debt Nov. 14, 2022.
The younger Casper allegedly held a knife while his father also confronted the victim.
But Casper Sr.'s attorney said his client was not involved in the crime, and that he was asleep in the back seat of the car when the robbery occurred.
The incident stemmed from a $10 debt the victim owed to the Caspers' third co-defendant, Jessica Halley, according to the charges.
Halley called the victim Nov. 14, 2022, saying she did not feel safe where she was and was coming to stay at his home, the affidavit of probable cause states.
Instead, when she got there, she lured the man outside under the guise of helping her with her bags, the charges claim. That's when two men confronted him, one holding a knife and demanding money.
The victim was able to escape and run upstairs to his second-floor apartment, followed by the two men who "began yelling and banging on his door," breaking a part of the window, the affidavit states.
The man with the knife was William Casper Jr., 28, the state alleges.
The younger Casper was ordered held at a detention hearing in October, where it was revealed that he was cooperating with police in a second case from March.
In that case, Casper Jr. and Nicholas Lettieri were captured on video taking a vehicle from the Buena Wawa after Casper told the victim he would be taking the 2007 Acura and giving it to Lettieri, a separate affidavit in that case states.
It was a recorded phone conversation Halley had with Lettieri while he was jailed that implicated the younger Casper in the Margate case, Assistant Prosecutor Nicole Campellone told the judge during his detention hearing Oct. 17.
Casper Jr. was on pretrial release in the car theft as a result of his cooperation, which "has been pretty extensive," his attorney said at that hearing.
Judge Joseph Levin ordered the younger Casper held in October. He also put on the record that he received a Facebook friend request from a William Casper. He said he did not accept it and was not sure it was the defendant's father.
Levin said the request had no bearing on his decision.
At the elder Casper's hearing Friday, Campellone told Judge William Miller that it was the younger Casper who tied his father to the case.
"The defendant's son revealed that this defendant was the unidentified defendant," the assistant prosecutor said.
But defense attorney Andrew Imperiale said he is so confident that his client was not involved that his investigator attempted to reach out to the victim to show him a photo of Casper Sr.
There was just one problem: The victim could not be located, Imperiale said.
"(The victim) no longer lives at the address," Imperiale said. "He no longer has a working phone number. He can't even be found on Facebook."
Miller, however, found that there was enough to charge the elder Casper, and enough to hold him.
Casper Sr.'s criminal history includes assaults and seven failures to appear in court, including two this year, according to the public safety assessment that helps determine whether a defendant is held under bail reform.
It also put his risks of both failure to appear and likelihood to incur new charges at the highest level, with a six out of six for each. The assessment recommended he not be released.
The judge agreed.
Both Caspers are in the Atlantic County Justice Facility.
Halley was released last year, following her own detention hearing.
It is unclear where Casper Jr.'s the car theft case is.
His co-defendant in that case was sentenced to three years in prison for filing a false report in Cumberland County, state Department of Corrections records show.
Lettieri was released Friday, according to the state system.
