The trial of a former Tamaqua man ended abruptly this week in Carbon County court when he decided to enter guilty pleas to 19 criminal counts in two cases and was immediately sentenced to a state prison term.

Frederick Postie, 44, who lived in Rush Township when first arrested and is now an inmate at the state correctional institution in Butler County, entered the pleas after his trial began and two of his co-conspirators testified against him.Postie entered pleas to five counts each of burglary, criminal conspiracy, criminal trespass and four counts of criminal mischief. All are felonies except one of the mischief counts, which is a misdemeanor.Postie was charged with entering four homes in the White Bear section of Summit Hill and a home in Nesquehoning. The break-ins occurred in 2011 and 2012 and involved unoccupied residences. Arrested with Postie were Stephanie Keck, 37, and Kerry Lee Frank, 34, both of Nesquehoning.A jury was picked Monday.Postie elected to represent himself at the trial. However, Judge Joseph J. Matika appointed attorney Gerard Strubinger to be his "standby" counsel at the jury selection and trial.Following the morning session of the trial, in which his two co-conspirators testified, Postie entered into a plea bargain with District Attorney Jean A. Engler, who prosecuted the case, to plea to the 19 criminal counts.Matika sentenced Postie to serve 12 to 30 months in each of the two cases with the terms running consecutively, and also consecutive to a state sentence he is currently serving. His total sentence is 24 to 60 months. Postie is currently serving a 40- to 132-month term imposed in 2013 in Schuylkill County. The minimum of that term runs out in June 2017. He will then begin serving the Carbon term.Postie previously served a prison term in Carbon for stealing 13 iPhones at the Walmart store in Mahoning Township. The Schuylkill sentence is for break-ins he committed with Keck and Frank in Rush Township.Keck and Frank, after their arrests by Carbon authorities, cooperated with police and entered plea agreements. Both were sentenced in Carbon to state prison terms of nine to 24 months each. At the time Keck was already serving state terms for sentences imposed in Northampton and Schuylkill counties. Frank was serving a state term for Schuylkill charges.Postie admitted entering the homes in the White Bear section of Summit Hill and a residence on Yard Street in Nesquehoning. Copper piping and wiring were taken, along with some other items. One of the homes in the Summit Hill break-ins sustained considerable damages.Postie also has a big restitution bill. He was ordered by Matika to make total restitution of $19,362.26, which is his share of the total. Keck and Frank, when sentenced, were ordered to pay their one-third share.The case took some time to get before a jury, then a plea. There were 21 continuances in the case. Some were due to the fact Postie was facing criminal charges in Schuylkill County and because at times he represented himself and filed motions on his own which had to be addressed by the court.In addition to the jail and restitution, Matika also ordered Postie to undergo a drug and alcohol evaluation and follow all recommendations, zero tolerance for drug and alcohol use, supply a DNA sample and pay court costs of about $1,000.