Brielle Winston, left, and Chazcie Heflin
A pair of women are accused of stealing a ride shortly after being released from the Atlantic County jail the day after Christmas.
Brielle Winston and Chazcie Heflin are accused of taking a vehicle that was left running outside the Wawa in Mays Landing on Dec. 26, and driving into Atlantic City.
The stolen vehicle was found in the parking lot of McDonald’s about 17 miles away.
Video surveillance shows the two women getting into the vehicle and then turning left onto Harding Highway out of the Wawa parking lot.
A worker recognized the women, and told police that they had just been released from the Atlantic County Justice Facility, which was confirmed at the jail, according to information at Heflin’s detention hearing Friday.
Heflin, 35, of Mount Holly, Burlington claims she did not know the vehicle was stolen.
“I was in the bathroom and I was getting ready to go back to the bus station when I was informed we had a ride,” she told Judge Jeffrey Waldman, after he ordered her detained. “I just got in because I was told I had a ride.”
“It appears her co-defendant is more culpable of the two,” defense attorney John Bjorklund told the judge earlier in the hearing. “She was in the bathroom and the co-defendant who was more the opportunist than this defendant found the car that was running.”
But Waldman disagreed.
“As to who was the primarily responsible person for this theft, it looks to me like it would be equal,” he said. “The defendant got in the car, irrespective of who the driver would be.”
Winston, 27, of Jackson, Ocean County, was held following her detention hearing Monday. Her attorney had it postponed from Friday, since he was just given the case.
Private attorney Andrew Imperiale was assigned the case since the Public Defender’s Officer could not handle both co-defendants.
Winston's public safety assessment, which helps decide whether a defendant is held under bail reform, puts her at the highest level for both public safety risk and failure to appear. It recommended no release.
Heflin expressed surprise that she was held, arguing that some of the pending charges listed during the hearing are not hers, including refusal to submit to fingerprinting and credit card theft.
“I’ve never refused a fingerprint when I’ve been incarcerated, so I don’t know where that came from,” she told the judge. “I’ve never stolen anybody’s credit card.”
Heflin also claimed not to know she was on Level 3 monitoring when released from the jail.
She also told the judge that he could not use her eight felony charges out of Virginia against her because it had been five years.
Heflin then claimed “I’ve never been in trouble until recently.”
The judge finally had the jail booth where Heflin was appearing via video from muted.
“The lack of insight, to me, is just incredible,” he said. “I’m looking at dozens of convictions notwithstanding the failure to submit to fingerprinting and credit card theft. Literally dozens of other convictions or pending charges.”
As Heflin left the booth, she could be heard saying: “Wow! I’m definitely suing you guys.”
