‘I’m good at this’: Judge sentences man in series of Pikesville home invasions, rape

In the fall of 2024, a condo community in Pikesville was targeted by a burglar who crept into at least three homes while the women inside slept.

He slipped in through unlocked windows and woke the occupants by shining a cellphone flashlight in their faces, police said. He had a gun, and he wanted money, jewelry, and—in one case—forced sex.

He told them he’d return and kill them if they called the police.

And he was bold. Police said when one victim asked how he’d gotten into her house, he replied, “I’m good at this.”

Trek Javar Scott, 26, was sentenced Friday in Baltimore County to 30 years in prison for breaking in and robbing women in three different Pikesville homes–two on the same night—with a gun. Police said he forced one of his victims to perform a sex act.

The judge called Scott’s crimes a “predatory campaign.”

“The facts before the court are among the most disturbing I have encountered in my 24 years now on the bench,” said Circuit Court Judge Michael Finifter.

Scott said almost nothing at his sentencing. His attorney, Assistant Public Defender Coriolanus Ferrusi, said little on his client's behalf. Scott had declined to cooperate with a pre-sentence investigation after his plea in February, so his attorney had little to offer in the way of Scott's personal history or mitigating factors.

“The defendant’s actions in this case are absolutely heinous,” said Assistant State’s Attorney Jocelyn Fish. “He broke into the condominium homes of three women in the middle of the night. He destroyed their sense of safety and security.”

Scott entered an Alford plea to one count of home invasion, one count of first-degree rape, and one count of first-degree burglary. An Alford plea allows a defendant to accept punishment for a crime without admitting guilt. It is treated as a guilty plea for sentencing purposes.

The incidents happened at the Falls Gardens Condominiums near Old Pimlico Road within roughly a quarter-mile of one another.

In one incident, an elderly woman who lived on Fourwood Court told police she woke to a masked, armed intruder around 3:20 a.m. Sept. 1, 2024, in her bedroom demanding money and jewelry. The man threatened to return and kill her if she contacted police.

That same morning at 3:45 a.m., a man broke into the home of a woman in her 30s, waking her by shining a light in her face, Fish said. 

In what the judge called “a deliberate act of psychological terror,” he showed the woman his hollow-point bullets and threatened to rape and kill her.

He demanded money and jewelry and later forced her to perform sex acts, police said. He used tissues from her home to wipe himself, which police said they later located and used to connect Scott to the crimes.

As he left, the man told his victim to close her eyes and count to 120, giving him enough time, Finifter said, to escape and "ensure she remained paralyzed and compliant."

Police investigating calls about the break-ins that morning spotted an empty Acura MDX nearby that had been left running. An officer locked the car and took the keys. Police also spotted someone they thought was the suspect but lost sight of him when he ran toward a wooded area, according to charging documents.

Investigators focused on Scott after someone reported seeing a man matching the suspect's description trying to retrieve the Acura later that morning using a locksmith.

Detectives traced the car to a nearby home on Jones Valley Circle, where Scott often stayed in his mother's basement, police said.

Using cellphone records and surveillance techniques, detectives linked a phone used to call the locksmith to an apartment on Millbrook Park Drive in Gwynn Oak, according to charging documents. Police found Scott there and arrested him on Sept. 2, 2024.

Police searched the apartment and the Jones Valley Circle home and found clothes matching witness descriptions, gloves, a balaclava, a jewelry box, tissues containing possible biological evidence, ammunition and two handguns, according to court records.

Scott largely denied involvement during an interview, police said, repeatedly telling detectives, “I don’t know” when confronted with evidence.

When tested, the tissues recovered at the Jones Valley Circle home were found to have DNA from both Scott and the sexual assault victim, Fish said.

Scott was also originally charged in a third similar home invasion from three weeks prior, but prosecutors dropped the charges in that case as part of the plea deal. In that case, a woman told police her home was burglarized on August 9, 2024, around 4:30 a.m. by a man wearing dark clothing. He pointed a light and a handgun at her and demanded jewelry and money, taking a jewelry box from the home, according to charging documents. Prosecutors took that crime into consideration when fashioning the plea agreement, Fish said.

Police had also received a report of an attempted intrusion at a fourth home in the area that morning. A man told officers he awoke around 3:40 a.m. to find someone trying to get in through his window. He scared the would-be intruder off before entry was made.

Scott had a history of committing burglaries, the judge said at sentencing. His pattern of crime, Finifter noted, was not one of “stumbling or circumstance," but one of escalation.

Scott was already wanted on a parole violation when Baltimore County police identified him in the Pikesville crimes. Years earlier, the Howard County sheriff's department had charged Scott in a series of burglaries.

In 2020, Scott was sentenced to 15 years in prison with all but seven years suspended for first-degree burglary, according to court records. He was released in January 2024. By June, he’d been arrested on a drug charge in the city.

“The defendant has proven from his actions that he is a highly dangerous individual with no desire to be a contributing member of society,” said Fish.

Scott accepted a plea agreement in February. Sentencing was delayed to Friday. For the rape charge, Finifter handed down a sentence of life in prison with all but 30 years suspended. Scott received 25 years for the home invasion and 20 years for use of a firearm in the commission of a violent crime, both sentences to run concurrently with the rape sentence.

After his release, Scott will be on probation for five years and must register as a sex offender and be supervised for the rest of his life. 

Scott also faces an additional eight years in prison from his probation violation in Howard County, Fish said.