By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

A 36-year-old Alabaster man will spend the next 15 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to robbing an elderly woman in the parking lot of the Publix supermarket off U.S. 280 in Hoover.

Circuit Court Judge Dan Reeves sentenced Christopher Joseph Stone, who lists a residence in the 700 block of U.S. 31 South in Alabaster, to a total of 180 months in the Alabama Penitentiary on May 8. Stone received credit for the 119 days he served in the Shelby County Jail between his Jan. 10 arrest and his sentencing date.

Through a plea agreement, a felony first-degree theft of property was dropped against Stone. According to his sentencing document, Stone has three prior adult felony convictions.

Mountain Brook Police arrested Christopher Joseph Stone and 33-year-old Alabaster resident Stephanie Robasciotti Mills on Jan. 10 after the Hoover Police Department issued information regarding the Jan. 6 robbery to area media and law enforcement agencies.

Mills and Stone were charged in connection with a Jan. 6 robbery in the parking lot of the Publix supermarket on Doug Baker Boulevard off U.S. 280. One of the suspects allegedly “reached out of the passenger window of the vehicle and snatched the purse” from an elderly woman’s shoulder.

“The victim was thrown to the ground as the suspect and driver fled the scene in a small, silver vehicle,” read a Hoover Police press release.

In April, Mills pleaded guilty to two counts of fraudulent use of a credit or debit card, both Class C felonies. Through a plea agreement, four other counts of fraudulent use of a credit or debit card and one count of second-degree robbery against Mills were dropped.

Mills allegedly used one of the victim’s stolen credit cards to make a purchase at the Pelham CVS about 30 minutes after the robbery, according to Hoover Police. The other fraudulent use of a credit or debit card charge Mills pleaded guilty to came after she used a credit card stolen from another victim on Dec. 29, according to court records.

As a condition of his sentence, Stone must pay $1,343.50 in restitution to the victim in the case, and must avoid contact with the victim. He also must “testify truthfully against any and all co-defendants” tied to the crimes.