SAN DIEGO (CNS/News 8) - An ex-con wanted in connection with a violent home-invasion armed robbery at the home of Metropolitan Transit System Board Chairman and former San Diego City Councilman Harry Mathis was in custody Thursday after being injured in a high-speed road chase in Arizona.
Parolee Harvey Henry Duson, 45, crashed the rental car he was driving while being pursued by authorities near the Nevada state line Wednesday afternoon, SDPD Capt. Terry McManus said.
He was arrested and admitted to a Las Vegas hospital under guard for treatment of non-life-threatening head and neck trauma, McManus said.
It was unclear how long it will be before the suspect can be extradited to California to face prosecution for allegedly barging into Mathis' house on Sandburg Avenue in University City last month with two other masked men.
They allegedly robbed, assaulted and terrorized Mathis, his wife and a neighbor who happened by.
Duson's neighbors in El Cajon were stunned that the man they knew as quiet, polite and church-going, is the same man wanted for a violent home invasion of a former councilman.
"It does totally blow my mind," said his next-door neighbor, Alexis Vallejo. "I had no idea."
"He was always a church person... very Christian," added another neighbor who spoke to News 8, Janet Montalvo.
Another neighbor said that Duson, who the community knew simply by the nickname 'D', had seemed to her to be on the right side of the law.
"Some kids were trying to break into my car," Crystal Magel said. "He happened to hear them, and he and his nephew came outside and chased them off."
Duson -- the only suspect in the crime identified so far -- eluded arrest this week after police got word that he had failed to show for a meeting with a parole agent, claiming that his car had broken down on Interstate 8 in La Mesa.
Shortly after 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, officers found the suspect's Pontiac Grand Prix on the southern shoulder of the freeway near Severin Drive. They took up positions around it and blocked off all but one eastbound lane in the area, unsure if Duson remained in the sedan, which had heavily tinted windows.
Rush-hour traffic slowed to a crawl for miles to the west for about two hours, until officers smashed the windows of the vehicle and pried open its trunk, finding nobody inside.
The next day, a member of the Arizona Department of Public Safety pulled over Duson for speeding. While the officer was running a computer check, the parolee drove off.
Duson led authorities on a pursuit that crossed into Utah and Nevada and back into Arizona at speeds exceeding 100 mph before the car he was driving sideswiped another vehicle and overturned while he was trying to avoid a tire-flattening spike strip officers had placed in his path.
San Diego police detectives were in Las Vegas Thursday morning to gather evidence as part of their investigation into the Jan. 11 armed robbery at
Mathis' house, the captain said.
About 9 that night, a man with a ski mask over his face confronted the 78-year-old Mathis moments after the victim returned home from an outing.
The armed intruder demanded cash. During an ensuing struggle, Mathis, who has a concealed-firearm permit, responded by pulling his own pistol and firing two shots at the robber, missing him. The assailant eventually wrested away Mathis' handgun and beat the victim over the head with it.
A passing neighbor who heard the gunfire went to check on the Mathis couple and was confronted by one of the masked men and dragged inside the house. Inside, meanwhile, one of the bandits forced Mathis' 77-year-old wife at knifepoint to open a safe before forcing her into a bathroom.
The gun-toting robbers then ordered Mathis to open a still-locked compartment in the safe and give them money. The victim complied, but there was no money inside the lockbox.
At that point, the intruders ordered Mathis and the neighbor into the room where the woman already was being held, and told the three to remain there or the house would be burned down.
After a few moments, the victims emerged and discovered that two small blazes had been set in the residence, one in the garage and the other in the kitchen. Firefighters arrived a short time later and were able to douse the flames.
Medics took Mathis to a hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries to his head and face. His wife and neighbor were unhurt.
The victims suffered a "minimal amount" of property loss during the holdup, according to McManus, who declined to specify what had been stolen.
Weeks of interviews and analysis of crime-scene evidence led detectives to deem Duson as a suspect in the robbery on Tuesday afternoon, shortly before the freeway standoff, McManus said.
Duson, whose last known residence was in El Cajon, was released from state prison about a year ago, after serving half of a 32-year sentence he'd received for an armed robbery in Lemon Grove. That August 1993 crime led to a confrontation during which a deputy opened fire on Duson, wounding him, McManus said.
