A Villager is appealing a 2017 conviction for firing more than 30 shots at the home of a neighbor lady with whom he had become infatuated.
Howard Sparber, 72, is set to appear in an evidentiary hearing Tuesday afternoon in Sumter County Court before Judge William Hallman III.
Sparber was arrested in 2016 after he armed himself with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun and repeatedly fired at the front door of the home of a woman on Landale Loop on whom the married Sparber had developed a crush. She was not home at the time. He had been drinking. She later said her Village of Hadley neighbor had been harassing her with sexual propositions, tried to lure her into a hot tub and had previously pointed a gun at her, all over a span of several months.
He was sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to never return to The Villages. He was also ordered to pay more than $5,000 in restitution to the woman with whom he had become infatuated.
Sparber was transported Monday from the Zephyrhills Correctional Institution to the Sumter County Detention Center in advance of Tuesday’s court appearance.
Sparber, who would be eligible for release on Dec. 13, 2020, has apparently been busy in the prison’s law library. He has been writing to the appellate court and attorney general’s office as he works to overturn the conviction.
Sparber’s wife divorced him in 2017 and has since moved to New Jersey.
The woman who was the object of his affection continues to own the same home on Landale Loop.
