When you get caught stealing power tools, it’s unlikely to earn you a 70-year prison sentence.
Then again, when you’re known as the county’s Christmas “Grinch,” the wheels of justice in this case turned a whole lot harder and faster.
Indeed it took a jury all of five minutes to hand down the sentence for Dana Brock, 44, on Thursday, KXAS-TV in Fort Worth reported.
“A 70-year sentence will knock the air out of your stomach,” said her attorney Raul Navarez. “She kept asking me, ’70 years? Are you serious? 70 years?’ Because 70 years is a pretty harsh sentence for this kind of a deal. And quite frankly, that’s what I argued to the jury. But the jury decided and we have to respect that.”
So why the harsh sentence?
Mainly because of Brock’s voluminous rap sheet, KXAS reported, but then there’s the “Grinch” factor.
Seems Brock became known as the Christmas “Grinch” after getting caught on surveillance video stealing Christmas lights from outside a home while the family slept last December.
Then when she was collared again in May for stealing a weed wacker and a power washer from a garage, a deputy recognized her on that surveillance tape, too. He said, “Hey, that’s the Grinch,” according to assistant Parker County district attorney Jeff Swain. “He knew right away who it was.”
The jury saw the video of her stealing Christmas lights, too. “When you’re known as the Christmas Grinch, people do remember you,” Swain said.
As far as her other misdeeds, Brock got started down a bad path at the age of 17 when she was convicted in Arizona of solicitation to commit murder, KXAS reported. Later she was convicted of credit card abuse, injury to a child, theft, assault, and drug possession.
Instead of two to 20 years in prison for burglary of a habitation, Brock faced 25 years to life under the “three strikes and you’re out” law, KXAS said.
Here’s a report from KXAS: