NORWICH – One of three men charged with beating a New Berlin man with a crowbar after breaking in to his home in November was reduced to tears while apologizing. “I’m sorry,” he offered.

“I don’t accept your apology. You put holes in my head,” Michael “Toby” Tubiolo said.

Aaron J. Crawford, formerly of 181 Steamsaw Mill Road in North Norwich, was sentenced to a determinate 8 year state prison sentence Friday morning. Before the sentencing, Tubiolo showed the court a letter of apology Crawford sent him.

“He said in that letter that he tried to help me. If he’s the one that stuck his finger in the hole in my head, that’s how he helped me,” the New Berlin man said.

Along with his Norwich co-defendants, Edward A. Steins and Chad L. VanDusen, Crawford broke into Tubiolo’s 5115 state Route 8 home shortly after midnight on Nov. 30. In April, Steins gave detail to what happened during the break-in.

“We walked in, beat him with a crowbar, stole his stuff and left,” the co-defendant said. “They started beating him with a crowbar ... I had a stick.”