A Bucks County burglar whom police tracked through his victim’s stolen AirPods was sentenced to state prison

Terror gripped an Upper Southampton woman one morning last October as she awoke to a sight prosecutors described Monday as “every woman’s worst nightmare: a stranger, armed with a knife, pinning her down to her bed.

The woman screamed, scaring him away, and walked away from the encounter unharmed. The burglar, Nafis Fisher, was sentenced to 4½ to 10 years in state prison during a hearing Monday before Bucks County Court Judge Wallace H. Bateman.

The sentence was handed own after Fisher pleaded guilty Monday to burglary, robbery, theft and related crimes.

But the effects of his crime still loom over the woman. She wrote in a victim-impact letter that she lives in a constant state of fear whenever she’s alone, and worries she’s being a burden to her own mother -she can’t sleep peacefully without her home with her.

“I feel violated and unsafe in the home I grew up in, a home that’s been in my family for several generations,” she said. “I fear this will never go away. I fear I will never be able to live on my own.”

Bateman acknowledged that Fisher’s crimes were “horrible,” and speculated that his intentions, whatever they were, for the late-night burglary were far from innocent.

“I can’t imagine how they felt. It must be devastating,” he said. “I can’t imagine waking up at 3 a.m. to stranger with a knife in his hand.”

Fisher apologized to the victim’s mother in the courtroom, blaming his actions on a longtime drug addiction that he is still seeking treatment for.

He told Bateman that his sole focus now is doing whatever he can to return home to his 6-year-old daughter, and be the father she needs.

The judge wondered how he would feel, as a father to a young girl, if the crimes he committed were inflicted on her.

Fisher had no answer.

First Assistant District Attorney Kristin McElroy said Fisher broke into the victim’s home on Miller Drive just before 3 a.m. on Oct. 7.

He took his time walking through the house, taking a 12-foot extension cord from its attached garage and a knife from the kitchen, she said.

Fisher brought both objects to the victim’s bedroom. When she awoke and screamed, Fisher fled in a panic, briefly struggling with her mother before running to a black Honda sedan parked nearby.

The victim later noticed Fisher had stolen her Apple AirPods, as well as her wallet and passport. Those items, McElroy, noted, had no value and only contained the victim’s personal information.

“These women were robbed of their ability to feel safe in their in own home,” she said. “It will always have this stigma that this is where the worst thing to happen to them occurred.”

Using her iPhone, the victim tracked her stolen Airpods to Frankford, where Philadelphia Police found Fisher sleeping inside the Honda.

Fisher’s attorney, David Gastfriend, noted that his client took responsibility for the crime “at the earliest possible step,” and wrote apology letters to the victim and her family after he admitted to the burglary and being taken into custody.

In the intervening months, Fisher has enrolled in counseling programs at the Bucks County Jail, and has had no behavioral issues there, according to Gastfriend.

Bateman commended Fisher for the proactive steps he’s taken while behind bars. He noted that, had he not done so, his sentence in this case would have been more severe.