By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

COLUMBIANA – A 43-year-old Alabaster man will spend the next seven years in prison after he pleaded guilty recently to distributing cocaine in the city in 2015.

Shelby County Circuit Court Judge Daniel Crowson sentenced Kevin Shawn Hale, who lists an address on Old Highway 31 in Alabaster, to seven years in the Alabama Penitentiary on Aug. 10 after Hale pleaded guilty to one count of distribution of a controlled substance.

Through a plea agreement, two other counts of distribution of a controlled substance were dropped against Hale.

While incarcerated, Hale must undergo a substance abuse assessment and successfully complete a substance abuse treatment program. He also must pay $620 in restitution to the Shelby County Drug Enforcement Task Force.

Because Hale had five previous adult felony convictions when he was sentenced, he could have faced up to 20 years to life in prison and up to a $60,000 fine.

The Task Force arrested Hale on May 12 on three counts of unlawful distribution of a controlled substance.

According to his arrest warrants, Hale distributed cocaine in the 100 block of Seventh Avenue Southeast in Alabaster on April 14, 2015 and Aug. 18, 2015 and distributed crack cocaine in the 100 block of Seventh Place Southeast in Alabaster on Feb. 1 of this year.