Ex-prison guard gets 7 years in prison for robbery

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) — A former Connecticut prison guard is going to jail after admitting he robbed five Massachusetts stores while wearing a mask.

The Republican reports that 39-year-old Jeffrey Nentwig, of Chicopee, Mass., pleaded guilty Thursday to robbing five Chicopee stores in January 2014 and to nine counts of assault with a dangerous weapon for showing a BB gun to store clerks.

Hampden Superior Court Judge Richard Carey sentenced Nentwig to seven years in state prison followed by three years' probation.

Defense lawyer Daniel Kelly says the former Enfield prison guard "knows that he ruined his life." Kelly says the robberies were "the acts of a man who became opiate addicted" and that a prescribing physician is at fault.