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Halifax man charged in two random home invasions involving women in their 80s

Dec 23, 2016 | 8:00 AM

HALIFAX — The same man is allegedly responsible for two random home invasions this week involving women in their 80s, Halifax police said Friday as they announced charges against a 43-year-old suspect. 

Paul Alexander Sponagle has been charged in attacks that were one day, and a few blocks, apart.

Eighty-five-year-old Jeanette MacDonald said she was punched in the face by a stranger, and dragged out of her basement apartment late Tuesday after she heard banging outside and opened her front door.

“The suspect demanded money and stated he had a gun although none was seen,” police said in a statement released Friday.

MacDonald, who uses a walker to get around, said she started screaming when she was forced to the pavement on Pennington Street.

“I was scared to death,” MacDonald told The Canadian Press on Wednesday.

At the time, MacDonald recalled seeing two young men, who fled when neighbours were drawn outside by her yelling.

“They said, ‘Do you want to live? You better give us the money.’ And I said, ‘I don’t have any money to give you,’” MacDonald said. “They were young guys, young punks, as far as I’m concerned.”

MacDonald, who lives alone, is recovering from two black eyes, bruises on her left hand and chest, and swollen ankles and knees.

The suspect is also accused of breaking into an apartment the following night on Leppert Street, which is a few blocks from the first crime scene.

Police said the suspect entered the apartment, walked into a bedroom and demanded money from an 86-year-old woman.

The victim gave the masked suspect a sum of money and he fled just before 11 p.m. The woman and a friend were not injured, and both told police they did not know the suspect.

Investigators later obtained video surveillance images showing a man leaving the area, and a police dog tracked a scent to a bus terminal near the Halifax Shopping Centre.

The suspect was arrested Thursday at 12:38 a.m. on Gottingen Street.

Police have said random attacks or home invasions involving the elderly are rare in the city.

Sponagle, of Halifax, has been charged with three counts of robbery, two counts of break and enter, one count each of assault causing bodily harm, possession of a dangerous weapon, uttering threats and using a disguise.

In December 2010, Sponagle was charged following an attempted robbery at the Delta Halifax on Barrington Street, CBC reports.

At the time, police said a man had demanded cash and went behind the front desk to find money. When he didn’t find anything, he fled in a vehicle.

Sponagle was subsequently charged with a robbing another hotel, a liquor store, and breaking into a home in the city’s south end.

The Canadian Press