Joseph E. Bonnett

The husband of a nurse charged with stealing painkillers from Chicora Medical Center was sentenced to county prison in Butler County Court on Thursday.

Joseph E. Bonnett, 39, of Rimersburg, Clarion County, was sentenced to 9 to 23 months in Butler County Prison by Judge William Shaffer.

He will also be subject to 30 months of county probation following his parole, and he has to complete the county drug and alcohol program. Shaffer also ordered him to pay court costs and $2,485 in restitution and was made work release and community service eligible.

Bonnett previously pleaded guilty to felony conspiracy to commit possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance.

He was initially charged with hundreds of counts of drug and theft charges after his wife, Pamela S. Bonnett, 46, a former nurse at the facility, was arrested for stealing drugs from the location for about a year in 2013.

During that time, she stole thousands of pills, police allege in charging documents. She was caught Feb. 12, 2013, when another nurse saw her take medication from a cart, investigators said.

Police said Pamela Bonnett admitted stealing the drugs to feed her husband's addiction to pain medication. She said that every week for about a year she had taken 30 Percocet pills, 10 oxycodone tablets and five Lyrica pills, police said.

Joseph Bonnett told police that his addiction began followed treatment for injuries he suffered in a motorcycle crash in 2003, according to court documents, and admitted to consuming all the drugs his wife had stolen,

Pamela Bonnet was previously sentenced to 40 to 80 months in state prison.