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14-year sentence in McHenry home invasion, stabbing

A 23-year-old McHenry man was sentenced to 14 years in prison Friday for his role in an October 2010 home invasion and armed robbery in which a woman was forced to strip off her clothes and two people were stabbed.

Joshua M. Crandall, of the 2500 block of Kosciuszko Road, must serve 85 percent — or nearly 12 years — of the sentence handed down by McHenry Judge Sharon L. Prather.

Crandall pleaded guilty on Feb. 7 to home invasion and armed robbery, felonies that carried a six- to 30-year prison sentence without the possibility of probation.

Two counts of aggravated battery along with charges of unlawful restraint and residential burglary were dropped as part of Crandall’s plea deal in which prosecutors agreed not to push for more than a 20-year sentence.

Authorities said Crandall and Vincent E. Smith, who was convicted in mid-February, broke into a home in the 6900 block of Route 120 near McHenry on Oct. 16, 2010.

Armed with knives and their faces hidden by masks, the pair threatened a man at knifepoint and stole $7,000 in $100 bills before Crandall stabbed a man in the chest and slashed his throat.

Another man was stabbed 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 bills — at Smith’s home, officials said

Crandall had previously been sentenced to prison time in September 2007 after a parole violation from a March 2005 burglary, court records show.

Smith will be sentenced on April 1 and faces up to 30 years.