Sullivan County District Attorney Jim Farrell announced today that Daniel Justiniano, 19, of Mountaindale, NY was sentenced in Sullivan County Court on December 17, 2013, to 16 years in state prison and 5 years of post release supervision for four separate home burglaries in the Town of Fallsburg.

Farrell said that Justiniano plead guilty to four counts of Burglary in the 2nd Degree, class C violent felonies, and admitted to breaking into four different homes, between October 2012 and January 2013, and stealing various property, including thousands of dollars worth of jewelry from the homes.

Judge Michael F. McGuire imposed a sentence of 4 years on each residential burglary with each of those sentences to run consecutively, for an aggregate total of 16 years in prison. Farrell said his office recommended a sentence of 12 years.

Justiniano was arrested on January 17, 2013, after an investigation into these home burglaries by the Town of Fallsburg Police. Only a couple pieces of jewelry were recovered by police, as Justiniano had pawned most of the stolen jewelry prior to his arrest. In addition to the state prison sentence handed down, Judge McGuire ordered Justiniano to pay restitution to the victims in the amount of $15,000, ordered him to pay $20,000 in fines and ordered him to stay away from the victims and their homes. Farrell said, “The Fallsburg Police did an excellent job in investigating this rash of burglaries and a serial burglar who stole thousands of dollars of jewelry has been held accountable and responsible for his actions. Residential home burglary is a serious problem in Sullivan County and those individuals who engage in this behavior must know that they will be held accountable. The burglar takes more than just property, they take away the feeling of safety and the security that we all are entitled to in our homes.”