Shawn Custis, 45, of Newark, is trying to prevent his ex-girlfriend and other witnesses from testifying at his trial that he allegedly is the assailant in the video of a home invasion attack Watch video
NEWARK -- After having dated him for years, the woman said she was familiar with how Shawn Custis looked in 2013, his style and the way he walked.
"Whenever he wasn't in jail, he was with me," the woman said.
That's why the woman claims she recognizes Custis as the assailant in a "nanny-cam" video of a man beating a woman during a 2013 burglary at a Millburn home.
The ex-girlfriend testified on Wednesday during a hearing to determine whether she and five other witnesses will be allowed to testify at Custis's upcoming trial on charges in the home invasion attack.
At the trial, prosecutors want to present testimony from the witnesses about how they had interacted with Custis and that, in their statements to police, they said they saw the video on TV news broadcasts and they identified Custis as the attacker.
During Wednesday's hearing, Essex County Assistant Prosecutor Jamel Semper, who is handling the case, stressed how the ex-girlfriend was deeply familiar with Custis.
Answering questions from Semper, the woman said she determined the man's voice on the video was Custis's, because it was "a voice that I'm familiar with."
But Custis's attorney, John McMahon - who has said the witnesses should be prohibited from testifying at the trial - on Wednesday sought to raise doubts about the woman's identification.
McMahon noted, for instance, how the woman was asked by police whether the man in the video acted like Custis, moved like Custis, had similar body weight and similar body style, and she responded, "No, I can't say all of that but I just know it looks like him, that's all."
The hearing, which began on Tuesday, is slated to continue on Friday. Custis's trial is expected to start in the coming months.
Custis, 45, of Newark -- who has an extensive criminal history -- is charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault, endangering the welfare of a child, robbery, burglary, criminal restraint and theft in connection with the June 21, 2013 incident.
Custis is accused of breaking into the victim's house and kicking, punching and throwing the woman down the basement stairs as her 3-year-old daughter sat on the living-room couch. Her 18-month-old son was asleep in an upstairs bedroom, authorities said. Custis also stole various jewelry items and a cell phone from the residence, authorities said.
Custis was arrested a week after the incident as he was leaving the New York City apartment building of another girlfriend of his at the time.
Inside that woman's apartment, authorities later seized a pair of jeans belonging to Custis that allegedly contains the victim's blood. Authorities have said a DNA analysis of the jeans shows the victim's blood was on the jeans.
In the days after the attack, authorities released the "nanny-cam" video to news organizations. The video does not clearly depict the assailant's face, and the victim identified another man as the possible culprit when she reviewed photos of Custis and other potential suspects, court documents state.
The six witnesses in question who identified Custis as the attacker in the video include the then-girlfriend who testified on Wednesday, her son, her daughter, and her daughter's boyfriend, as well as two other women who had personal relationships with Custis, court documents state.
The then-girlfriend told police she and Custis were in her bed on June 25, 2013 and watching TV when her daughter came into the room and said Custis was "on the news."
Her daughter switched the channel to the News 12 New Jersey broadcast and they watched the "nanny-cam" video, the woman told police. The girlfriend said she then told Custis she believed he was the man in the video.
After they watched the footage, she said Custis said he wasn't the attacker in the video. She said Custis left the residence a short while later. Custis returned two days later, picked up his clothes and left, she said.
On Wednesday, McMahon noted how the woman's daughter offered her opinion about Custis being in the video before the woman had seen the video. He also pointed out how the woman discussed the video with her friends before providing her statement to the police.
But when Semper then questioned her, the woman said she told Custis she believed he was the attacker in the video, because of her own viewing of the video and not because of what her daughter had said. The woman also said she was not influenced by her friends to identify Custis as the man in the video.
Bill Wichert may be reached at bwichert@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillWichertNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.