John M. Staubitz Jr., a former deputy state health secretary, was convicted yesterday of burglarizing two Carroll County homes last year.
As part of a plea deal that resolves nearly all of the cases stemming from 1993 suburban Baltimore burglaries in which Staubitz has been accused, the former No. 2 state health official will be sentenced to nine years and 11 months in prison.
The sentence, retroactive to Staubitz's arrest in September 1993, will add a little less than two years to the eight-year term Staubitz is serving for his April conviction in five Baltimore County burglaries.
Though he was convicted yesterday of only two burglaries, Staubitz paid nearly $20,000 in restitution to owners of the four houses he was charged with burglarizing. Prosecutors dropped more than 30 other charges against him.
It was not clear yesterday where Staubitz -- described at the time of his arrest as "nearly broke" -- obtained the money for restitution. But law enforcement and courthouse sources say that a relative of his won an out-of-state lottery drawing.
In September 1993, Staubitz and Robert Ernest Emmons Jr., the accomplice he met in prison while serving time for skimming thousands of dollars from the State Games program, are alleged to have burglarized a dozen homes in Carroll, Baltimore and Howard counties. Emmons, who testified against Staubitz in Baltimore County trials, is serving 25 years in prison after pleading guilty to the break-ins.
According to court records and testimony, the two stole nearly $100,000 worth of jewelry, electronics, guns and other valuables.
A sentencing date for the Carroll conviction was delayed yesterday until Staubitz has a hearing in an alleged violation of parole in the State Games case, but the term he will receive was announced by State's Attorney Thomas E. Hickman. Judge Luke K. Burns Jr. agreed to the terms of yesterday's plea deal.
Staubitz was released from prison in February after serving a 10-month sentence for skimming thousands of dollars from the State Games, a relatively small program that he supervised as the No. 2 official of the health department. A legislative audit in 1990 revealed improprieties in the program.
Staubitz was convicted on a charge of conspiracy to commit misconduct in office in May 1992. Before he could be sentenced in July, he left town. He was arrested in August in a Las Vegas motel room.
Staubitz still is to be tried in the three Howard County break-ins with which he is charged, but a plea deal involving restitution also is expected in those cases.