La Plata, MD –  Karen Anne Granville, 27 of Mechanicsville, was sentenced Tuesday, Feb. 2 on theft charges from 2014 when she stole credit cards and racked up more than $4,000 over a two-month period, theft charges from May 2015 in St. Mary’s County and a driving while suspended charge from April 2014. The sentence was handed down by Charles County Circuit Court Judge Helen I. Harrington.

Charles County Assistant State’s Attorney Jeremy Widder said the defendant tested positive for cocaine and other drugs.

The agent from parole and probation added that Granville had missed appointments.

“I’m trying to get help,” Granville told the judge, saying she had fallen into using drugs when she got back together with a former boyfriend.

“I know it was a mistake, going back to him when I knew I shouldn’t,” she said, telling the judge she went back to using drugs because of him.

In the end, however, Harrington had heard enough and put the hammer down.

“I cannot in good conscious let you walk out of here today,” she told Granville. “The combination of drugs that you are using can be lethal. Until you are stopped in your tracks, you will continue to do them. You weaseled out of the Jude House. You checked yourself out of Stepping Stones. You had your own plan. You failed within 24 hours. You had every opportunity to go straight. You’re on a fast track to the grave. You’re fooling yourself.”

The judge then sentenced Granville to 18 months in the Charles County Detention Center on the credit card theft charges, another 87 days of back up time in the St. Mary’s theft, and another 30 days on the driving while suspended charge—all to run concurrently.

“You are to complete jail-based treatment,” Harrington said, adding that she would consider an 8507 order (inpatient drug treatment) once she has completed the detention center program.

“If you have the resources for Jude House, I will consider that,” she told Granville. “This is your time to focus on yourself, to get healthy and stop playing games.”

She also ordered Granville to pay $4,178 in restitution.

Contact Joseph Norris at joe.norris@thebaynet.com