A man who stole from his girlfriend’s mother so he could feed his heroin addiction will serve a year behind bars.

The man, Joey Vincent Hutcherson, 24, entered guilty pleas before Circuit Court Judge Bart Stanley to charges of aggravated burglary, theft and possession of drugs. He was directed to serve 364 days of a four-year sentence on the sum of his charges.

His plea comes less than a mother after his girlfriend, Regina Lynn Farless, 30, entered guilty pleas herself for the burglary of her mother’s home. She is serving a 290-day sentence and will be on the drug court program once her jail time is done.

According to arrest warrants against the two, they went to the home of Farless’ mother in the Centertown area after Farless told her friend there was a safe there with money and prescription drugs.

“They agreed to steal the safe,” said sheriff’s investigator Kevin Murphy.

While they got away with the crime momentarily, fleeing the scene of the heist before lawmen arrived, the two were found in town in the parking lot of Central Church of Christ a short time later. Lawmen recovered the contents of the stolen safe when they took them into custody outside the church.

“There was $1,200 cash and prescriptions of Percocet and morphine,” Murphy revealed.

During subsequent questioning, Hutcherson admitted he planned to sell the drugs so he could buy other drugs to feed his habit.

“Mr. Hutcherson said he was going to sell the morphine and Percocet on the street to buy heroin,” Murphy said.