Last week, Harry Mathis told a judge that the day he turned 79 years old “was the best birthday I ever had — I lived to see it.” It was the day after two men beat him during a home-invasion robbery. Mathis, chairman of the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System Board and a former District 1 City Councilman, testified in the preliminary hearing about the Jan. 11 incident in his University City home. Only one suspect, Harvey Henry Duson, 45, has been charged in the incident. The identity of the second assailant is unknown. Duson’s DNA was found in four places of the Mathis home, a witness told San Diego Superior Court Judge John Einhorn. After hearing testimony for a second day on May 18, Einhorn ordered Duson to stand trial on charges of kidnapping for robbery, residential burglary, robbery, three counts of false imprisonment, arson and being a felon in possession of a firearm. Mathis was led violently from his car in the garage into the home, after which the men demanded money from Mathis’ safe. Mathis and his wife, Mary, and a neighbor were then held against their will in a bathroom. Duson was also ordered to stand trial on two unrelated robbery counts involving the Nov. 9 holdup of a Sprint store on Rosecrans Street in Point Loma, during which cash and cell phones were taken. An employee, Franklin Aytes, told Einhorn two men entered the store and tied him and another employee up at gunpoint. He said the men’s faces were covered, and he could not identify Duson. The two workers were tied up with nylon, but managed to free themselves with scissors and called 911. Mathis testified he had just driven home from Mayor Jerry Sanders’ State of the City address and got out of his car in the garage when he was attacked by two men. “They ran into me and knocked me down. It was a very violent hit, like from a linebacker,” he said. “They were shouting, ‘Where’s the money?’” Mathis said he pulled out his gun — for which he has a permit — but “I couldn’t get a clear shot.” He said he fired twice in the air, hoping neighbors would hear the shots and call police. Mathis couldn’t identify Duson as his attacker, because the men wore masks. He said he believed they were armed because a sharp object against his back “felt like the butt of a gun.” One of the men gained control of Mathis’ gun and pistol-whipped him. Mathis was bleeding from his head and blood got into his eyes, he said. He said both men wanted him to open the safe, adding “It was apparent to me he knew his way around the house.” Mathis testified his home was broken into twice some months earlier, but nothing was taken. He installed a security system. He said the burglars apparently found his safe, but the suspects were mistaken about the safe’s contents. Mathis and his wife opened up two safes for the assailants, but there was no cash inside. Instead, there were only firearms — placed inside, he said, so his grandchildren could not accidentally find them. Mary Mathis, 77, testified one robber told her, “If you don’t open the safe, I’ll slit your throat.” A neighbor apparently heard the commotion and rang the doorbell, but he was taken hostage inside the house along with the Mathis’. “I heard them saying, ‘We’re going to torch the house.’ I was praying, asking for protection,” said Mary Mathis. Someone pressed a panic button inside the home after several areas of the home and the garage were set on fire, and police and fire department personnel responded. Harry Mathis was rushed to a hospital, and said he was released at 4 a.m. the next day. His face was severely bruised and he said he suffered permanent hearing damage. Deputy District Attorney Martin Doyle said Duson’s DNA was found on Mathis’ car, on the door to the kitchen from the garage, on dishwashing gloves found on a chair and on a gun-care canister. Duson was arrested Feb. 15 in Nevada after leading several law enforcement agencies on a high-speed chase that ended after his car tires were deflated by a spike strip. He was injured in the crash and was brought to San Diego after being treated in a Nevada hospital. He remains in jail on $1 million bail. Duson has pleaded not guilty and will learn his trial date on June 4. He has a criminal record, and if convicted on these charges, could face 115 years in prison.