Frederick A. Postie, who helped burgle four Rush Township buildings in 2011 and 2012, could spend as long as 11 years behind state prison bars after being sentenced Friday in Schuylkill County Court.
"I believe it is a significant sentence," Judge John E. Domalakes said after sentencing Postie, 42, of Frackville, to 40 months to 11 years in a state correctional institution, plus two additional years on probation.
Domalakes also sentenced an unrepentant Postie to pay costs, $250 to the Criminal Justice Enhancement Account and $13,333.59 restitution, and submit a DNA sample to law enforcement authorities.
After a two-day trial over which Domalakes presided, a jury of seven men and five women found Postie guilty on Oct. 29 of four counts each of burglary, criminal trespass, theft, receiving stolen property and criminal mischief and two of conspiracy, and not guilty of four additional counts of criminal trespass.
Rush Township police had charged Postie with burglarizing 268 E. Main St., Quakake, on Dec. 12, 2011, 714 and 716 Claremont Ave., Ginther, on Dec. 15, 2011, and 474 Fairview St., Ginther, on Jan. 13, 2012. Police said Postie and his co-conspirators, Kerry Frank and Stephanie Keck, vandalized all four buildings, ripping out copper and stealing tools to sell for money to feed their drug habits.
On Friday, Postie and his wife, Annette, each blamed Frank and Keck, especially the latter, for his crimes, saying they were primarily responsible for luring him into participating in the burglaries. Frank and Keck each testified for prosecutors against Postie.
"It was an Academy Award-winning performance," Annette Postie said of Keck's testimony. "I don't believe this is fair."
A handcuffed Fred Postie also tried to shift the blame for what occurred.
"I'm not a career criminal," he said. "Sometimes, you get mixed up with the wrong people in life."
The defendant also said prison would not do him any good, and that correctional institutions are misnamed.
"There is no correcting going on," he said. "Nobody is trying to make anybody better."
Domalakes did not accept that argument, however.
"I believe a part of the criminal justice system is to hold people responsible for their criminal acts," he said.
Frank, Summit Hill, and Keck, Nesquehoning, entered guilty pleas in connection with their roles in the burglaries and are serving prison terms.
Assistant Public Defender Christopher W. Hobbs, Fred Postie's lawyer, and Assistant District Attorney Jennifer N. Lehman, who had asked Domalakes to impose on the defendant a sentence of 10 to 30 years in a state correctional institution, each declined to comment on the case after sentencing.
Fred Postie's first trial ended in a mistrial on Aug. 26 when a witness referred to him being in prison.Defendant: Frederick A. Postie
Age: 42
Residence: Frackville:
Crimes committed: Four counts each of burglary, criminal trespass, theft, receiving stolen property and criminal mischief and two of conspiracy
Prison sentence: 40 months to 11 years in a state correctional institution, plus two additional years on probation