Police charge three in home invasion

Published 10:36 pm Monday, March 9, 2009

Two Portsmouth men and a 16-year-old boy have been charged in connection with the home invasion robbery and brutal assault last week of a 65-year-old Suffolk woman.

Clinton Matthew Ivey, 30, and Aaron James Brennan, 22 — both of the 2000 block of County Street in Portsmouth — are being held without bond at the Western Tidewater Regional Jail following their arrest in Portsmouth on Saturday.

Ivey, Brennan and a juvenile whom police have not identified have been charged with burglary, abduction, robbery, grand larceny, malicious wounding, credit card theft, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony and wearing a mask on private property, according to court records.

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The juvenile is being held in a juvenile facility, according to Debbie George, Suffolk spokeswoman.

The two adults were scheduled for arraignment in Suffolk General District Court on Monday, but both sets of cases were continued. Ivey’s arraignment was rescheduled for Tuesday morning, along with a bond hearing; Brennan’s was set for May 5.

Suffolk police “have worked countless hours to identify and apprehend the suspects” since Wednesday’s attacks, she said. They were assisted by the Portsmouth Police Department’s Criminal Investigative Division when they served a search warrant at the Portsmouth home Saturday night.

There, police found “a large amount of stolen property,” including some of the victim’s things, George’s press release said.

Evidence also has linked the three to a Feb. 20 burglary and attempted arson of a home in the 1700 block of Hosier Road, George said, noting that the Fire Marshall’s office would be bringing charges against them for attempted arson of a residence, arson of a structure, burglary and grand larceny.

During the Feb. 20 incident, the home was burglarized, appliances were stolen, a shed was burned down and someone tried to burn down the residence.

During Wednesday’s home invasion, three men entered the Freeman Mill Road home of a 65-year-old woman at about 11:30 p.m. When they found her in her family room, they demanded money, her wallet and jewelry.

They beat her, shoved her into a door and bound her before ransacking her home. The intruders then stole the woman’s 1999 Chevrolet Cavalier, which was later found abandoned in Chesapeake.

The victim was able to free herself from her restraints after the men left her home. She fled to a neighbor’s house, and police were called. She was later taken to Sentara Obici Hospital, where she was treated for a broken nose and wrist, as well as other, more minor, injuries.

On Thursday, police released a video from a bank ATM on Victory Boulevard in Portsmouth. The video captured a portion of the face of a man whom police said had attempted to use the woman’s stolen credit card. The vehicle shown in the bank video had been reported stolen in Portsmouth.