Man guilty in home invasion, stabbing

A second McHenry man is guilty of an October 2010 home invasion and armed robbery in which a woman was forced to strip off her clothes.

A McHenry County jury on Monday also convicted Vincent E. Smith, of the 6900 block of Route 120, of armed violence and aggravated unlawful restraint for the Oct. 16, 2010 attack, said the McHenry County state’s attorney’s office.

During the four-day trial, four witnesses identified Smith, who will be sentenced on April 1.

Prosecutors Ryan Blackney and David Johnston argued that Smith and another man broke into a home on the 800 block of Black Partridge Road in unincorporated McHenry County armed with knives and their faces hidden by masks.

Smith’s accomplice, Josh M. Crandall, 23, of 2500 block of Kosciuszko Road, McHenry, threatened one man at knifepoint and stole $7,000 in $100 bills before stabbing him in the chest.

Another man was stabbed three times outside the home — both survived.

McHenry County sheriff’s deputies arrested both men on the same day of the crime and authorities found $4,200 — in $100 denominations — at Smith’s home, officials said.

Smith was arrested in McHenry a few hours after the break-in, and Crandall was arrested by the Madison County sheriff’s office and the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force near Edwardsville, Ill.

Crandall pleaded guilty last week to home invasion and armed robbery and will be sentenced on March 11. He also faces up to 30 years in prison.

Both men have criminal records that will be factored in when they are sentenced. Crandall was sentenced to three years in prison in September 2007 after a parole violation from a March 2005 burglary, court records show. Smith was sentenced to five years in prison in 2006 for burglary.