A former Lakeville middle school principal was sentenced to 8½ years Monday for multiple counts of stalking, burglary and identity theft.

Christopher J. Endicott, 51, of Apple Valley, pleaded guilty to the crimes in April. The sentence involves five separate cases from 2013 to 2018.

He will also have to pay $19,876.35 in restitution to the crime victims. His sentence was an upward departure from the sentencing guidelines, said Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom.

"We are pleased to have brought this defendant to justice for this disturbing criminal behavior that terrorized neighbors, family and co-workers," he said.

Backstrom said that 18 people were victimized. Apple Valley police began investigating Endicott, then principal of Century Middle School in Lakeville, in January 2018 after receiving reports that the school district's information technology system had been hacked.

Electronic devices and a paper notebook that investigators found held the key to many of Endicott's hacking activities, according to the charges. Endicott cracked security measures and got access to bank accounts, credit cards, airline rewards programs and store memberships to places such as Sam's Club. Many of those hacked had connections to Endicott's former school district as fellow employees, court documents showed.

While authorities were investigating the identity theft allegations, they contacted a woman who said she had been harassed by Endicott for years and feared him, the charges said.

Burglary and theft charges against Endicott are still pending in North Dakota, where he is accused of stealing rare coins from his in-laws' home in Grand Forks.

DAVID CHANEN