Man Headed To Jail For Middletown Home Invasion Robbery

A Trenton man involved in a burglary and robbery ring that struck 18 homes in Pennsylvania and New Jersey — including several in Bucks County — will serve up to 15 years in state prison.

Christopher Upshur, 27, pleaded guilty Nov. 29 to charges that included five residential burglaries and one home-invasion robbery in 2012 in Lower Makefield, Middletown and Upper Makefield Townships.

Upshur and his cohorts took hundreds of thousands of dollars in property from their victims, including more than $80,000 from those in Bucks County, officials say.

According to information from the Bucks County District Attorney's office, the burglaries typically consisted of prying open a window while no one was home, ransacking the house and stealing jewelry, guns, computers, cash, and, in one case, a Lexus.

Three of the families suffered losses exceeding $19,000 each, authorities said.

But the crime spree eventually turned violent, authorities say.

In Sept. 2012, authorities say Upshur and three other masked men forced their way into a Middletown home, attacked an elderly couple and ransacked their house before taking nearly $25,000 in cash and jewelry.

Upshur’s father, told the judge his son worked two jobs and was a "doting father" to his young daughter before getting “mixed up with the wrong people,” who recruited him into the burglary ring.

Upshur was sentenced to serve seven and one-half to 15 years for the Middletown robbery. For each of the five Bucks County burglaries he imposed a concurrent five- to 10-year sentence. He was also ordered to pay, along with his four co-defendants, more than $84,000 in restitution to five of the Bucks County victims.