A 12th Circuit judge sentenced a Bradenton man who confessed to stealing television sets to 150 days in jail and two years of probation.
Michael P. Farmer, 40, pleaded no contest Feb. 17 and was adjudicated guilty on felony counts of burglary, dealing in stolen property and obtaining money from a pawn broker by fraud.
Judge Hunter Carroll presided over Farmer’s plea deal, including a probation sentence with credit for time served.
From the date of his arrest, Farmer served 159 days in jail.
He had faced 40 years in state prison for the felonies.
Farmer was arrested in September 2016 after he gave himself up to the Holmes Beach Police Department. Police called him about the thefts and he went to the station, where he admitted to stealing two 40-inch TV sets from the 300 block of Clark Drive. He worked at the residence.
According to online records, Farmer sent letters to the courthouse.
In one letter, Farmer asked the court to consider 60 months probation, saying he’d been offered a deal of 29 months in state prison.
“I made a bad decision and mistake,” Farmer wrote, adding he was out of work and trying to provide for his family. He told the court he was “not a drug user or career criminal.”
He was released Feb. 17, according to jail records.