Bridgeton, New Jersey

From the Vineland Daily Journal of December 10, 2005

Home invader gets 10 years, blames victims

William Burden laid the blame for many of his problems at the feet of an Upper Deerfield couple who wouldn't answer their door when he and an accomplice tried to burglarize their house on July 4, 2003.

In addition to a 10-year attempted burglary sentence handed down Friday, Burden's problems are many:

The 32-year-old Bridgeton resident already is serving a 20- to 30-year sentence for burglaries and other crimes committed in Cumberland and Salem counties in 2002 and 2003. His crime spree triggered the largest state police investigation in the region's recent history.

He faces additional years if convicted of two robberies where police said he and Howard Dunns, a 28-year-old Fairfield Township resident, shot and seriously injured two elderly Salem County men.

Police also tied the handgun used in the two shootings to the murder of a Millville youth. Burden has been charged with providing the gun to the accused killer in that case.

In court Friday, Burden faced Robert and Wanda DuBois, an Upper Deerfield couple who happened to be at home when Burden and a man police said is Dunns called on the afternoon of July 4.

"I wish they had answered the door," Burden said before he was sentenced Friday. "Had they done that, me and my boy would have gone on our way."

"Maybe it wouldn't have brought down all these other burglaries and stuff I didn't commit on me," Burden said. "Not to minimize what I did, but I'm going through a terrible situation because of all these charges I'm facing."

But Robert DuBois, who chased the two men away from his rural house by firing two shots from his own handgun, wasn't buying Burden's tale of woe.

DuBois chased down Burden and Dunns until state police arrested the pair."I think Mr. Burden and all the career criminals ought to get new jobs," DuBois said. "It gets dangerous when you try and do what he did out where I live."

Superior Court Judge Timothy Farrell said he didn't believe Burden had only a simple burglary in mind when he and Dunns kicked down the door of the DuBois residence.

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