ELKTON — A man who stole more than $33,000 in jewelry, silverware and other property over several months from a residence near North East — where he periodically performed maintenance jobs and yard work for pay — received a four-month jail term on Monday and was ordered to pay nearly $9,500 in restitution, according to Cecil County Circuit Court records.
Cecil County Circuit Court Judge William W. Davis Jr. imposed a maximum 10-year sentence on the defendant — Norman Richard Graham, 63, of Charlestown — and then suspended all but four months of that penalty, court records show. Graham will serve his four-month term in the Cecil County Detention Center.
In addition, Davis ordered Graham to serve three years of supervised probation after completing his four-month jail term and to pay $9,492 in restitution to the victims through the Cecil County Department of Parole & Probation at the rate of $263 a month, according to court records, which indicate that $9,492 reflects the monetary sum of the stolen property that investigators were unable to recover.
Graham pleaded guilty to theft scheme of more than $25,000 and less than $100,000 in December, as part of a plea agreement reached by Assistant State’s Attorney Ellis Rollins and Assistant Public Defender Gary Atwell Brown III, court records show. The state agreed to dismiss eight related charges against Graham, including first-degree burglary, as part of that plea deal.
Graham committed his series of thefts in 2023, between Jan. 1 and May 25, approximately a five-month period, according to the indictment that a Cecil County grand jury handed up against him on June 21, court records show.
The investigation leading to Graham’s felony conviction started at approximately 3:30 p.m. on May 12, when Maryland State Police Tfc. Matthew Hughes went to a residence in the unit block of Abigail Lane in response to a theft complaint, police reported.
One of the two victims at that residence reported that “most of her Wallace sterling silverware set” appeared to have been stolen at an unknown time, police said. Forty-seven pieces of the silverware set were missing — translating to approximately $3,500 in value, police added.
In addition, that victim — identified only as Victim # 2 in court records — reported six pieces of jewelry stolen, including a Spinel diamond ring valued at $12,500, an estate ruby ring valued at $5,900 and a large blue topaz pendant valued at $1,700.
The victims identified a couple of people who had been on their property or inside their residence within the past month, including Graham, police reported.
They explained to the investigator that Graham had “only ever been welcomed inside their residence while they wrote a check for property maintenance he completed,” police said.
The victims also reported that they left their residence “from time to time” while Graham was on the property working and that, if they knew they’d be gone for only a “short period of time,” they would leave the residence unlocked during those occasions, police added.
With the victims’ permission, Hughes looked at their checkbooks and studied the dates on which they had issued Graham checks, paying for his maintenance and yard work, and then compared them with pawn transaction reports obtained by the investigator, court records show.
“On multiple transactions at the North East Gold & Coin, Graham pawned (items) matching the stolen property on or about the days he was written a check,” according to court records.
While reviewing the pawn transaction reports, the other victim — Victim #1 — identified property that had been stolen from her, including a pearl necklace valued at $5,000 and man’s gold ring valued at $1,000 and bearing an “SHL” engraving, court records show.
On May 15, the investigator and the two victims went to North East Gold & Coin and spoke with the owner, identified as Victim #3 in court papers, and the owner reported that Graham had last pawned on May 4, police reported.
The owner retrieved those items pawned by Graham — 10 pieces from the silverware set — and the investigators seized the property, police said. The owner had paid Graham $175 for those items, police added.
Three days later, the owner sent the investigator photos of jewelry and other silverware pieces pawned by Graham, and Victim #1 and Victim #2 identified them — a total of nine items — as their property, court records show.
The investigation led to the recovery of other property stolen by Graham from the Abigail Lane residence and later pawned by him, police said.
Victim #2 later reported that her son’s chainsaw valued at $360 had been stolen from her garage, according to court records, which identify the chainsaw owner as Victim #4. And a few days later, Victim #1 reported that a pole-saw valued at $1,000 had been stolen, too, court records show.
“All together during this theft scheme, Graham burglarized the aforementioned address (on Abigail Lane) at least twice and the garage at least once. The total value of theft is estimated at $33,860,” Hughes outlined at the end of his statement of probable cause.
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