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NILES — A Buchanan man who stole lottery tickets from a Harding’s Market was sentenced to prison Monday in Berrien County Trial Court.

Lawrence Woods, 46, of Buchanan, pleaded guilty to larceny $1,000 to $20,000 and was sentenced to 12 months to five years in prison and $4,758 in fines, costs and restitution. He has credit for no time served as he is on parole.

He is currently in prison awaiting a determination on his alleged parole violation. He also was sentenced earlier this year in Cass County for a 2021 drug offense. The new prison sentence is concurrent with the Cass County sentence and consecutive to any parole violation sentence.

The incident occurred June 27 when he stole lottery tickets from the Harding’s Market in Berrien Springs. A separate case from June involving larceny by conversion $1,000 to $20,000 was dismissed with the restitution in that case added to the current sentence.

“I made bad choices,” Woods acknowledged Monday in court. “I own up to what I did and apologize.”

Berrien County Trial Judge Jennifer Smith noted that Woods is already receiving prison guidelines on offenses like this one that carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

“If you continue to commit crimes, you will continue to score out for prison,” she said. “You know the choices you should be making.”