Men plead to church break-ins

A judge Wednesday sentenced two Waynesboro men to prison for breaking in to three churches and stealing cash and electronics.

Stephen P. Bakaitis, 23, and, Joshua T. Bakaitis, 21, each pleaded guilty to 16 felonies and two misdemeanors.

Stephen was sentenced to serve three years and eight months in prison, and his brother to two years and eight months in prison. The remainders of their 15-year sentences were suspended and they were ordered to jointly pay restitution of $14,028.

The brothers broke into St. John’s Episcopal Church, Valley Pastoral Counseling and Bethany Lutheran Church between March 14 and March 19, police said.

DNA matches from a cigarette butt and a tool — which detectives credited to careful evidence collection and unusually good luck — linked the brothers to the crimes. After the lab results, police searched Joshua Bakaitis’ Waynesboro apartment and his brother’s tent along the South River, turning up items stolen from area churches, according to a search warrant.

Interviewed just before their arrest in June, both brothers described lives of poverty.

Their tragic story had made its way into news pages before. The Bakaitises’ stepbrother was killed in 2007 when he was burned by a foundry wire while trying to steal copper in Radford, according to The Roanoke Times. Their father was also severely burned in the incident. Their mother was serving a yearlong jail sentence at the time.

Work was hard to find in Radford, the brothers told The Roanoke Times, spurring a move to Waynesboro, where trouble continued and employment never stuck.

“Don’t revert back to a criminal lifestyle just to make money,” Stephen Bakaitis told The News Virginian before his arrest. “Stick through it.