Man gets 3-to-5 years in state prison for Peabody jewelry heist

SALEM – A Tewksbury truck driver who admitted stealing more than a thousand dollars worth of gold jewelry from Nordstrom?s Department store in Peabody last November will spend the next three-to-five years in state prison.Stephen P. Brennan, 58, of 2499 Main St. changed his plea of innocent to guilty Wednesday afternoon in Salem Superior Court on a charge of stealing more than $250, forgoing the need for a trial.Judge Timothy Q. Feeley imposed the maximum punishment for the charge.Assistant District Attorney Michael Patten said he would have produced evidence at trial that on Nov. 29, 2010, at about 6 p.m., Peabody Police Officer Justin Cecil responded to Nordstrom?s Department store on a report of a shoplifting case.A security guard for Nordstrom?s told Cecil he was reviewing video surveillance and saw Brennan walk into the North Shore department store?s jewelry counter and ask to see several gold items. As the store clerk produced the items and turned around, he grabbed the assorted jewelry tossed it into a white bag and fled from the store before jumping into the passenger side of a black Mitsubishi, according to court records. The security guard said he approached Brennan, retrieved the white bag and found $1,500 worth of gold jewelry inside, according to records filed.Brennan posted bail for the case and 10-days ago, on Nov. 19, police arrested him again at the North Shore Mall in Peabody, this time at Sears, and charged him with larceny and possession of drugs.As part of the plea concession, Patten told Feeley that Brennan has agreed to plead guilty in Peabody District Court to the Nov. 19 charges and that the punishment imposed will run simultaneously with the three to five year term.The judge credited Brennan with the 10-days he spent in jail on bail awaiting trial on the case.Brennan was indicted by an Essex County grand jury in January.