Maryland Navy engineer and wife plead guilty in submarine secrets sale case

A U.S. Navy nuclear engineer and his wife entered new guilty pleas Tuesday in a case involving an alleged plot to sell secrets about nuclear-powered warships, a month after their previous plea agreements that had called for specific sentencing guidelines were rejected.

Jonathan and Diana Toebbe of Annapolis, Maryland, pleaded guilty in federal court in Martinsburg, West Virginia, to one felony count each of conspiracy to communicate restricted data.

U.S. District Judge Gina Groh last month rejected the couple's initial pleas to the same charges, saying the sentencing options were "strikingly deficient" considering the seriousness of the case. The couple then immediately withdrew their initial guilty pleas and Groh set trial for January.