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October 09, 2007 (Berlin, CT) – Investigators on Monday were trying to identify the motive behind a violent break-in over the weekend in which two women were beaten and bound with duct tape.

Samuel Harrington, 33, is accused of breaking into his ex-girlfriend's Briar Lane home early Sunday and pummeling the woman in front of her 2-year-old daughter, then attacking the woman's 78-year-old grandmother as she tried to intervene.

Harrington was arrested later Sunday in connection with the home invasion.

"He's not talking with us," said Berlin police Sgt. John McCormack, "but it was a domestic situation."

According to police, Harrington entered the house about 4:30 a.m. by breaking through his former girlfriend's bedroom window. Once inside the bedroom, which the 30-year-old woman shared with her daughter, police said, Harrington beat the woman with his fists and also choked her. During the attack, the woman was holding the 2-year-old in an attempt to protect her, police said.

When the grandmother heard glass breaking and screams coming from the bedroom, she went inside and was also attacked, McCormack said. Harrington punched the 78-year-old repeatedly and ultimately bound both women with duct tape, McCormack said.

According to authorities, Harrington disabled the home's landline phone and took his ex-girlfriend's cellphone before fleeing in a 2003 Nissan Murano. The women were still tied up but managed to free themselves about an hour after Harrington left, McCormack said.

Police responded to the home about 5:30 a.m. and soon issued a statewide alert, describing Harrington and his vehicle.

The two women and the 2-year-old girl were taken by ambulance to the Hospital of Central Connecticut at New Britain General, where the grandmother remained hospitalized as of Monday morning, McCormack said. Their identities were not released because the attack involved a sexual assault.

Sunday afternoon, Naugatuck police pulled over the Nissan and took Harrington into custody without incident, McCormack said. Berlin police then picked up Harrington, who has no certain address and had recently been moving from one friend's home to the next, and booked him on 16 counts.

He was charged with first-degree strangulation, first-degree assault, first-degree assault of an elderly person, two counts of second-degree threatening, third-degree sexual assault, two counts of first-degree unlawful restraint, first-degree burglary, first-degree robbery, fifth-degree larceny, interfering with an emergency call, risk of injury to a minor, tampering with physical evidence and two counts of breach of peace by assault.

Harrington was being held Monday at the Berlin Police Department with bail set at $1 million and is expected to appear this morning in Superior Court in New Britain.

-By Vanessa De La Torre, Hartford Courant Staff Writer