A former East Lyme couple who carried out a series of residential burglaries in the fall of 2014 to support their addiction to heroin will be sentenced early next year in New London Superior Court.

Craig Daignault, 32, pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of first-degree larceny and five counts of third-degree burglary. He accepted a plea offer from the prosecutor, Lawrence J. Tytla, involving a sentence of three years in prison and five years probation.

Noting the seriousness of the crimes, Judge Hillary B. Strackbein said she is reserving her right to reject the plea bargain worked out by Tytla and defense attorney Anthony Basilica until she sees results of a pre-sentencing investigation of Daignault. The Department of Adult Probation investigates the defendant's history and speaks with victims as they prepare pre-sentencing reports.  

Tiffany L. Bauer, 22, who had cooperated with the police investigation of the burglaries after entering a drug rehabilitation program, pleaded guilty Nov. 25 to third-degree burglary, first-degree larceny and third-degree assault of an elderly victim. She will be be sentenced to up to three years in prison as part of a plea agreement that allows her attorney, William T. Koch Jr., to argue for a shorter prison term. The judge said she would go no lower than 2 1/2 years in prison.

According to the state, Daignault and Bauer broke into unoccupied homes in East Lyme, Lyme, Old Lyme and Salem in September 2014 and stole electronics, silver, jewelry and other valuables. They pawned the items locally or attempted to sell them online. In her statement to police, Bauer said she had met Daignault three years earlier. He introduced her to heroin, she said, and by September 2014 they were intravenously using one to two bundles a day — 10 to 20 bags —  and stealing from homes to support their habits.

Daignault has been held in lieu of $89,000 while his case was pending. Bauer has been free on bond.

On Sept. 17, 2014, Daignault and Bauer were attempting to break into a home on Jericho Drive in Old Lyme when the elderly couple who lived there arrived home and asked them what they wanted. Daignault fled into the woods after the homeowners blocked his and Bauer's car in the driveway. Bauer got into the victims' car, which was still running. She refused the owner's demands to get out and started to reverse with the driver's side door open, striking the couple and causing them to fall to the ground. The couple refused medical treatment.

Daignault pleaded guilty to the Old Lyme case under the Alford Doctrine, which indicates he doesn't agree with the state's version of the incident but doesn't want to risk getting a harsher sentence if convicted at trial. He used the Alford Doctrine because, he said, he "wasn't there" to see what happened after he fled the scene.

Noting that Daignault appeared to look "bemused" as the prosecutor recited the facts of the cases, Tytla and the judge warned Daignault to come to his sentencing date with a better attitude.

"My office has been receiving letter after letter from victims on how the lives of these victims have been disrupted," Tytla said.

k.florin@theday.com

Twitter: @KFLORIN