The Schuylkill Haven man who was convicted of, or pleaded guilty to, three separate sets of crimes earlier this year is headed to state prison after being sentenced Tuesday in Schuylkill County Court in connection with two of those incidents.
Samuel T. Steffie, 41, did not react as Judge Jacqueline L. Russell ordered him to serve eight to 24 months in a state correctional institution for giving alcohol to two minors.
"You have trouble staying out of trouble," Russell told Steffie in concluding that a state correctional institution is where he belongs.
Russell also sentenced Steffie to pay costs, $5,000 in fines and $50 to the Criminal Justice Enhancement Account, perform 40 hours community service and undergo a drug and alcohol evaluation.
Earlier on Tuesday, Judge James P. Goodman sentenced Steffie to spend two to 12 months in prison, pay costs, a $50 CJEA payment and $2,300 restitution, and undergo drug and alcohol counseling on a charge of criminal mischief. However, Russell made her sentence concurrent with Goodman's.
Steffie pleaded guilty before Goodman on Jan. 31 to criminal mischief, with prosecutors withdrawing a charge of recklessly endangering another person. Schuylkill Haven borough police alleged Steffie committed criminal mischief on April 6, 2012, in the borough.
In the other case, a jury convicted Steffie on Feb. 6 of two counts of selling or furnishing liquor to minors, while finding him not guilty of two counts each of endangering the welfare of children and corruption of minors and one of simple assault. Russell, who presided over the one-day trial, found Steffie not guilty of harassment.
Schuylkill Haven borough police charged Steffie with providing Colt 45 malt liquor to two underage girls on Sept. 25-26, 2011, at his residence.
"He is a career criminal," Assistant District Attorney Robert M. Reedy told Russell in urging her to send Steffie to a state correctional institution.
Heidi Clocker Steffie, the defendant's wife, whose daughter, Kelcie Clocker, was one of his victims, testified her daughter was adversely affected by the incident.
"What you did was wrong," she said.
However, Michelle Linder, Orwigsburg, the defendant's girlfriend, testified that she wants to be with Steffie.
"He doesn't want to continue the rest of his life in jail. I would do anything I had to do" to help Steffie go straight, Linder said.
Assistant Public Defender Christopher W. Hobbs, Steffie's lawyer in each case, asked Russell to place his client on probation.
"Sam understands he was certainly wrong," Hobbs said. "He has a terrible alcohol problem."
Russell said Steffie's victims were her chief concern.
"I am more concerned about the children," she said. "You encouraged them by your activity to violate the law."
Steffie is scheduled to return to court at 9:30 a.m. March 18 to be sentenced by Judge Charles M. Miller in a third case.
On Feb. 4, a different jury convicted Steffie of receiving stolen property and prohibited sale of veterans markers. State police at Schuylkill Haven alleged that Steffie both possessed and sold 14 veterans grave markers between noon and 1 p.m. July 11, 2011, at USS Achey Inc., 355 E. Second Mountain Road, North Manheim Township.
Miller presided over that one-day trial.