But Shore and his family tried to convince Garb yesterday that Shore was forced into the criminal partnership by 21-year-old Quirus, who was also sentenced in Montgomery County Court last week to 2 1/3 to seven years in state prison, a sentence that will run concurrent with Garb's punishment.
Family and friends depicted Shore as a victim of a manipulative Quirus. They said he suffered from manic/depressive disorder, was a drug addict, and suffered a troubled childhood with an abusive father.
"When he met Christine Quirus," Shore's sister said, "that's when it started going downhill."
But Garb didn't buy that argument. Quirus also had a troubled childhood, suffered bouts of depression, and attempted suicide, points she made during her sentencing.
"(Shore's) version is not the only version," Garb said. "That your will was overborne by her is hard to accept."
Neither Shore nor Quirus had records before this crime spree, Parlow said.
Although a psychiatrist who examined Shore tried to minimize Shore's role to simply sitting in the getaway car taking drugs, Parlow made it clear that Shore played an active role in the heists.
Shore's job, he said, was to knock on the doors to see if anyone was home during the burglaries. The money they made from selling the jewelry they stole
from homes in Philadelphia, Bucks and Montgomery Counties was used to buy drugs.
During most of the burglaries, Quirus sneaked to the back of the home, smashed a basement, kitchen or bedroom window, and slid through. Once inside, she would take what she could grab. Mostly, she went for jewelry.
Police from nine Bucks municipalities were stumped for some time until the owner of a Philadelphia jewelry store realized that Quirus was using a credit card that had been reported stolen. Police used photographs from the store's video camera to identify her. Those pictures - coupled with an identification of Quirus by one of her victims, who came home while Quirus was inside - were enough for an arrest warrant.
Shore still faces charges in Montgomery County, where Quirus was ordered to pay $40,000 in restitution in addition to her prison sentence.
