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…