Maryland man receives four years in prison for burglary

A current Maryland and former Charles City resident who was involved in several burglaries in Charles City will now spend four years in prison.

David Scott Yates Sr., 45, formerly of the 4500 block of Rockinghorse Lane, learned his fate during Jan. 24 Charles City Circuit Court proceedings.

At a separate Nov. 22 trial, Yates Sr. accepted a plea deal, pleading guilty to three counts of grand larceny and one count of burglary from break-ins occurring between last March 20 to April 28. A presentence report recommended a sentence range from one year, eight months to four years, two months. Commonwealth’s Attorney Rob Tyler asked for a term towards the higher end of the guidelines, pointing to the defendant’s criminal history.

Judge Thomas B. Hoover asked Yates during mitigation if he had anything to say. The defendant made sure to make several points when he had the opportunity.

“I want to say that I’m sorry for my actions,” said Yates. “What I did was wrong and I knew better.”

However, Hoover pondered over matters brought to his attention by Tyler.

“The commonwealth’s attorney points out that you’re a career criminal,” Hoover said, as he received the criminal history report.

“I wouldn’t say I’m a career criminal,” rebutted Yates. “I’ve just been out of a long stretch of work during those periods.”

Obviously agitated by the defendant’s response, Hoover decided to let Yates know about his criminal offenses; one by one.

“You have three and a half pages of charges,” said the judge, as he read over each charge with the earliest occurring in 1989. “That’s a career criminal.

“You have enough time on criminal charges to take the Virginia State Bar [a test for lawyers to practice law] and pass it,” Hoover added.

After Hoover read convictions Yates currently faced, the defendant tried to apologize again, only to be denied.

“And the thing that bothers me the most is that you had your son help you,” continued the judge. “The second generation involvement is an aggravated factor in this case.

“You don’t accidently break into someone’s house one or two times,” added the judge, speaking on the defendant’s actions to ransack the unoccupied home of Edward and Karen Spain who were relocating.

“I thought the house was abandoned,” Yates responded.

“But that doesn’t give you the right to go inside and take stuff does it?” rebuked Hoover, before announcing sentencing.

Yates received 10 years in prison with six suspended on the one burglary charge. Ten years on each of the three grand larceny charges (a total of 30 years) were suspended. He must also pay restitution in the amount of $18,441.