MOUNT VERNON — According to Knox County Prosecutor John Thatcher on Tuesday, in the Knox County Court of Common Pleas, Judge Otho Eyster sentenced three men for felony crimes.

Michael E. Thompson, 40, Mount Vernon, was sentenced to a five-year prison term for robbing a local convenience store on July 3, 2008.

Jeremiah Linn Leist, 26, Mount Vernon, was sentenced to a four-year prison term. Leist was convicted of two counts of burglary, robbery and one count of theft of a gun. According to Thatcher on April 7, Leist broke into a residence near Howard where he stole a shotgun. Five days later Leist broke into a Mount Vernon residence where he stole cash and personal property. On May 17, Leist stole money from a cash register at a Mount Vernon bar and then physically harmed a bar employee and patron while fleeing after the robbery. Leist was also ordered to pay over $6,000 in restitution to the victims of his crimes.

Thatcher said in a separate case Leist was also convicted of vandalism for destroying a telephone and damaging the stainless steel table top and window in a visitation booth at the Knox County Jail. Judge Eyster sentenced Leist to an 11-month prison term that will run concurrently with Leist’s four-year sentence, and he ordered Leist to pay $847.50 in restitution to Knox County for the damages.

Brandon J. Molloy, 23, Mansfield, received a 17-month prison sentence for breaking into a garage on Elizabeth Street, Mount Vernon, on March 13. MVPD officers later found Molloy and a co-defendant in possession of three firearms and other property stolen from the garage at a residence they shared at the time on East Chestnut Street, Mount Vernon. Molloy was also convicted of stealing a credit card. Judge Eyster ordered Molloy to pay half of the restitution owed to the victims, and Thatcher said the other half of the restitution will be paid by Molloy’s co-defendant who pleaded guilty on June 30.