Sources say a New Tecumseth man involved in a brutal axe murder and robbery in 2004 is now charged in connection with two break and enters that occurred in Penetanguishene while the residents were home sleeping.
Dean Thomas Ireland, 30, was arrested on Monday and faces a raft of charges including two counts of break and enter, two counts of theft, theft of a motor vehicle and fail to comply with probation.
The Southern Georgian Bay OPP Street Crime Unit said in a release the two break-ins took place overnight from November 12 to 13 in the Town of Penetanguishene.
Court records show that on September 7, 2006 Ireland was convicted of accessory to murder in the axe killing of an elderly blind man.
Local newspapers reported at the time that the victim Jim Giles, 69, also suffered from arhtritis and required a motorized wheelchair to get around.
Giles was murdered on Jan. 22, 2004 in Brentwood, west of Barrie, when Ireland, then 18 and a 17 year-old friend knocked on the senior's door.
Media reports from the trial say the two teens pretended to be stranded in the winter storm that night and asked for shelter.
Giles was bludgeoned several times with an axe and robbed.
Ireland pleaded guilty to accessory to murder after the fact.
His friend was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced as an adult.
Ireland appeared in bail court yesterday on these latest charges and was remanded in custody to November 24.
