Two stabbed during McHenry home invasion

Two McHenry men are in custody after stabbing two people and forcing a woman to strip at knifepoint during a McHenry home invasion early Saturday morning, police said.

Joshua M. Crandall, 23, of the 2500 block of Kosciuszko Road and Vincent E. Smith, 29, of the 6900 block of Route 120, were both charged with home invasion, armed robbery and unlawful restraint. Crandall was also charged with two counts of aggravated battery.

Police responded to a 911 call during the early morning hours Saturday stating two masked men broke into a home on the 800 block of Black Partridge Road and stabbed two people, said Lt. James Popovits of the McHenry Country sheriff's office.

Police said the men were armed with knives when they entered the home and began barking orders. One woman told police the men forced her to remove her clothing during the burglary.

Popovits said the first police on the scene found a man with stab wounds in his upper torso. The man was taken to Northern Illinois Medical Center but had to be airlifted to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville. A second man was driven by a friend to the Northern Illinois Medical Center and treated for stab wounds to his torso, Popovits said.

The five people who were in the home at the time of the burglary were restrained by the men while a “significant amount of money was taken, Popovits said.

“I absolutely believe (the home) was specifically targeted, he said.

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

At least one of the victims knew the two suspects informally by nicknames, and police were able to track down the men with the help of area police departments, Popovits said.

“It was a timely apprehension, that's for sure, Popovits said. “These guys were dangerous people with felony backgrounds.

Crandall was sentenced to three years in prison in September 2007 after a parole violation from a March 2005 burglary, court records show. He has faced a number of felony charges ranging from forgery to aggravated battery since 2005, according to McHenry County court records.

Smith was sentenced to five years in prison in 2006 for burglary.

Both men are being held at the McHenry County jail on $250,000 bond.