Florida Shoplifter Gets 20-Year Prison Term
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SANFORD, Fla. — A grocery store shoplifter was sentenced to 20 years in prison for trying to steal five slabs of sirloin, a long sentence made possible by new state law for handling repeat offenders.
Calling him a career thief, Seminole County Circuit Judge C. Vernon Mize Jr. ordered Johnell Warren on Tuesday to spend two decades in prison for trying to remove two pounds of bottom round and seven pounds of top sirloin from a grocery store. Warren, 37, who has an extensive theft record, testified at his May trial that he used to steal to support his cocaine habit. But, he said, he stuffed the steak down his pants in November to feed several nieces who were living with him.
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