Pair charged
in home invasion

Philadelphia police have captured two suspects in a May 19 home invasion and sexual assault in Oxford Circle, but a third alleged accomplice remains at large.
Gregory Reese, 20, of the 5700 block of N. 20th St., surrendered to police last Thursday, days after authorities charged Earl Hall, 20, of the 7200 block of Rupert St., with a series of offenses related to the break-in.
Hall was already in jail at the time of his arrest for violating probation in an unrelated case.
Capt. John Darby, commander of the police department’s special victims unit, described the crime as unusually brazen as the three armed suspects spent hours inside the apartment of the female victim.
The men ate food, drank refreshments and watched television before making off with a couple of hundred dollars, jewelry and a cell phone belonging to the 26-year-old woman.
The ordeal began after midnight when one of the suspects broke into a rear window of the victim’s apartment, then let his two partners inside, Darby said. The victim awoke during the racket. The intruders soon demanded cash, drugs and jewelry from her at gunpoint.
The woman has lived in the apartment for about a month and may have been a victim of a mistaken identity, Darby said.
At one point, at least one of the suspects allegedly had indecent contact with the woman.
After the men fled the apartment, the victim called 911. Forensics investigators were able to recover fingerprints from the crime scene and trace telephone calls made on the victim’s stolen phone.
Later on the day of the crime, patrol officers in the 35th district stopped a car driven by Hall for a traffic violation. Reese was a passenger in the car.
While checking Hall’s record, the officers discovered that he was wanted for a probation violation. Officers arrested Hall on the spot. Meanwhile, Reese turned out to be a scofflaw with numerous outstanding traffic violations, Darby said.
During a search of the men and vehicle, officers found items that detectives later linked to the home invasion.
"It was a good cooperative effort of things being done at the patrol level and at the investigative level and with evidence being processed by the crime scene unit," Darby said.
Police released no further information about the third unknown suspect.
Hall and Reese are charged with burglary, robbery, indecent assault and related offenses. Detectives continue to investigate the two known suspects in connection with similar crimes. ••