A habitual shoplifter was sentenced Monday in Berrien County Trial Court to 196 days in jail for first-degree retail fraud and for resisting arrest.
Niles’ Angela Johnson, 25, was charged after stealing a $399.99 cooler on Oct. 12, 2016, from Rural King, located at 2707 S. 11th St. The women will also serve a 24-month probation sentence and could face prison time if she fails to complete drug court. Security footage caught Johnson leaving the store without paying for the item and then making a getaway in an unidentified van, according to police.
Five days later, Johnson was spotted near the Franklin Woods by an officer.
The officer tried to stop her by yelling at her twice and then pursued her on foot. Johnson appeared to be running toward her home in the 1900 block of 13th Street in Niles.
During her sentencing Monday, Judge Angela Pasula addressed Johnson’s prior record and a “severe” heroin addiction. Pasula assigned her to drug court, with the condition that if she does not complete the program she could serve up to five years in prison.
As Johnson took to the stand Monday, she said she was responsible for her future.
“I got a second chance,” Johnson said. “It is up to me to succeed.”
Pasula immediately disagreed that Johnson was getting a second chance. According to the judge, Johnson’s record includes 12 prior thefts and 24 different jail sentences, a record Pasula said was among the most significant she had seen in someone so young.
“You have had so many chances they are almost immeasurable,” she said.
Pasula said she assumed that the theft was to fund Johnson’s drug addiction to heroin. Pasula then warned Johnson that she must kick her habit.
“When you put a needle in your arm to shoot yourself up with heroin, you hold the hand of death,” she said. “I have no idea how many chances heroin has given you, but they are not endless.”
Defense Attorney Albert Mais said that his client was “the captain of her own ship” and that she had a chance to take her sentence seriously or risk prison.
Johnson has already served 46 days of her sentence. She was sentenced to 150 days in jail for the retail fraud and 46 days for resisting an officer.
Johnson will also be responsible for paying Rural King restitution for the stolen cooler.