By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

COLUMBIANA – A 27-year-old Hueytown man will spend the next three years in the Alabama Penitentiary after he pleaded guilty to multiple counts of breaking into vehicles in Alabaster.

Devin Eugene Smith, who lists an address on Virginia Lane in Hueytown, pleaded guilty to two felony counts of unlawful breaking and entering a vehicle and one felony count of first-degree escape during a late November hearing in front of Shelby County Circuit Court Judge Dan Reeves.

As a result of Smith’s guilty plea, Reeves sentenced him to three years in prison followed by two years of supervised probation. Smith must pay any restitution ordered by prosecutors, and he received 117 days of jail credit for time already served in the Shelby County Jail.

The Alabaster Police Department arrested Smith on Aug. 6 and charged him with two felony counts of theft of property second degree, two felony counts of breaking and entering a vehicle and one felony count of second-degree possession of a forged instrument. The remainder of Smith’s charges were dropped through a plea agreement.

Smith’s arrest came after he stole items from a pair of vehicles in Alabaster in late July. The suspect broke into a 2005 Ford Explorer on July 28 and a 2003 Toyota 4-Runner on July 29.

Smith stole a .40-caliber Taurus pistol and checks from the Ford Explorer, before attempting to forge one of the checks for $175 at a Pelham bank the same day.

Smith stole a wallet, a driver’s license and a Wells Fargo debit card from the 4-Runner.

When he was arrested on Aug. 6, Smith was serving an 18-month sentence with the Shelby County Work Release program for a previous first-degree theft of property charge Smith pleaded guilty to on June 4. In the first-degree theft of property case, Smith stole a Honda Accord in March in Pelham.

According to Work Release Program documents, Smith allegedly had multiple violations of his work release sentence, including failure to maintain employment, failing to take drug tests on four occasions, admitting to using heroin, having unauthorized leave from the program and being reported as an escapee from the program.

His first-degree escape charge was tied to his unauthorized leave from the work release program.