Chesapeake man pleads guilty to Accomack portion of December 2023 crime spree; sentencing set for July

By Linda Cicoira

A 29-year-old man pleaded guilty Thursday in Accomack Circuit Court to five felonies connected to a crime spree that started in a Pocomoke, Md. store and ended with a high-speed chase and crash in Exmore in December 2023.

Christopher Allen Orbeta, of George Drive in Chesapeake, pleaded guilty to robbing a delivery worker at the Temperanceville Corner Mart and robbing, abducting, stealing, and taking a credit card from an employee at the Nelsonia Corner Mart. He pleaded guilty in December to the crimes committed in Northampton County. 

There was no written plea agreement in the case. The maximum term for the crimes is life plus 60 years in prison and a fine of $100,000.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Spencer Morgan said an accomplice had committed the crimes. Orbeta was a principal in the second-degree. At the Nelsonia convenience store, the defendant stayed in the car when a store worker was struck in the face with a soup can, forced to go into the store’s office, and robbed.

A long-form presentence report was already in the works for offenses in Northampton County. Sentencing was set for July 17.

In another case, Michael Thomas Volpe, of Chincoteague, pleaded guilty to a July 2022 count of distributing cocaine as an accommodation. He was sentenced to three years in prison with all but four months suspended as part of a plea agreement with Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael Baker. When Volpe is released, he will be on three years of supervised probation and five years of good behavior.