Cops: DNA links man to 4 robberies of same church

An Amityville man, already in jail on charges of robbing a Massapequa Park church three times in three months, has been linked by DNA to a fourth robbery at the same church, police said.

Mark Spruill, 43, was arraigned in February on charges of robbing poor boxes of an unspecified amount of cash at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church twice in 2009 and once in January this year. This week - as he was being held in Nassau County jail - Spruill was charged with a fourth robbery of donation boxes at the church after blood from the crime scene was matched to Spruill's DNA, Nassau County police said.

The blood was found on a broken donation box, police said.

Spruill's DNA was in a state database because of two previous robbery convictions. The state prison database shows he served time for robbery at the Sullivan Correctional Facility in upstate Fallsburg and was released in 2002.

Spruill was charged Feb. 9 with robbing the poor boxes at Our Lady of Lourdes on Jan. 31 as well as Nov. 18 and Dec. 5, 2009.

Wednesday, he was charged with a Dec. 13, 2009, robbery, from which the blood evidence was taken, police said.

Spruill had been a suspect in that robbery, Det. Sgt. Al Sharpe of the Seventh Squad said. "We just couldn't charge him at that time," Sharpe said.

Once police got the DNA match, Spruill was charged at the jail, where he is being held on the previous burglary charges, police said. Police did not say how much was stolen.