On February 24, 2023, Raymond Branch, 20, of Newark appeared before the Honorable Noah Franzblau, J.S.C., and was sentenced to four years in prison for third-degree Theft of a Motor Vehicle. On August 15, 2021, Mountain Lakes Police Department responded to a report of a stolen black 2017 Maserati Ghibli.
Later in the morning of that day, the Maserati was recovered and forensically processed, where a fingerprint was found on the interior of the front driver door window. The fingerprint matched Raymond Branch, who was identified as a suspect following an investigation.
Cellular telephone records revealed that Branch used real estate and mapping applications on his cell phone in the area at the time of the theft. On April 5, 2022, the 20-year-old was arrested and detained pending trial. Months later, on August 2, 2022, Branch pled guilty to third-degree theft of a motor vehicle.
