The victim of a brutal home-invasion robbery in northern Gainesville died Wednesday afternoon.
Paul Quandt, 78, died shortly after 3 p.m. when family members made the decision to remove him from life support, according to Gainesville Police Sgt. Joe Raulerson.
The attackers originally faced attempted murder and home invasion with a weapon charges. But Raulerson said the state attorney's office is now considering changing the charges to first-degree murder.
The home invasion that led to Quandt's death happened late in the evening Jan. 9. Austin M. Jones and his cousin Maranda J. Martin, 22, donned masks and broke into Quandt's house at 4854 NW 75th Rd.
They came with two rolls of tape, a stun gun and two pistols. Martin used to work for a health-care service that provided aid to Quandt, police said. She knew he had a safe in the house.
When Quandt, a military veteran, refused to give the pair the safe's combination, he was beaten, his hands were taped and he was shot with a stun gun.
Jones and Martin took the safe with more than $20,000 worth of gold, silver, firearms, currency and electronics in it and put it in the trunk of Quandt's white Cadillac.
After the pair fled, Quandt used cooking oil to loosen the tape on his hands, and he managed to crawl to his scooter and tell a neighbor what happened before slipping into a coma.
Police arrested Jones after a high-speed chase that ended in a three-car collision that night, and Martin turned herself in to police the next day.
GPD Sgt. Joe Raulerson announces that the victim of a brutal home-invasion robbery in northern Gainesville died Wednesday afternoon.
