Judge rejects plea deal in spy case because sentences weren't harsh enough

A naval engineer and his wife were to be sentenced on Tuesday for trying to sell information about nuclear-powered submarines to a foreign government — until the judge rejected their plea deals, saying they were not harsh enough. 

Jonathan Toebbe and his schoolteacher wife, Diana, were arrested in October and pleaded guilty in February to espionage charges. 

In a series of dead drops in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Virginia, Jonathan Toebbe passed military secrets to someone he believed to be an agent of another country, but who was actually an undercover FBI agent, authorities said. In one of the exchanges, he concealed a memory card inside a peanut butter sandwich, according to court filings.