Woman charged with lying to police; attempted murder case against man dropped

TOMS RIVER, N.J. — An Eatontown woman who told investigators she had been set on fire in a Plumsted Township wooded area is now charged with falsely incriminating another person, and the attempted murder case against a man arrested in the incident has been dropped, the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office said.

Chelsea Villano, 33, was charged Oct. 23 with two counts of falsely incriminating another, Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer announced. She was arrested at Eatontown Police Headquarters and taken to the Ocean County Jail, where she is being held pending a detention hearing, according to the prosecutor’s office.

Further investigation found that Villano gave police false information about how she was injured and who caused her injuries, authorities said.

In a separate announcement, Billhimer said charges of attempted murder and aggravated arson against Justin Martin, 36, of Saddle Brook, were administratively dismissed “in the interests of justice” as a result of the continuing investigation and the charges filed against Villano.

The case began Oct. 15 at about 1:36 p.m., when Plumsted Township police and emergency medical crews responded to a wooded area near Hawkin Road and Success Road after a 911 call about a woman with burn injuries, the prosecutor’s office said. She was taken to Temple University Burn Center in Philadelphia and released several days later.

According to the prosecutor’s office, Villano told investigators that while she, Martin and another person were in the wooded area, her boyfriend tried to burn and kill her.

Martin was charged Oct. 16 and arrested in Asbury Park at about 12:15 a.m., authorities said. He was held at the Ocean County Jail until his release Oct. 19.

The investigation was conducted by the prosecutor’s Major Crime Unit and the New Jersey Conservation Police, with help from the Plumsted Township, Asbury Park, Eatontown and Keansburg police departments, the Ocean County Sheriff’s Office Crime Scene Investigation Unit and the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office.

The charges are accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

This report is based on information from the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office.

Source: Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office press release; Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office press release on dismissal