In Champaign County... a Monticello man gets a four year prison sentence for stealing $37,000 from his grandmother.

45-year-old Douglas Whitehouse will also have to serve two years of mandatory supervised release after the prison. A plea agreement also orders him to pay $40,315.85 in restitution to the estate of his 96-year-old grandmother, who's a resident of the Piatt County Nursing Home.

The Piatt County State's Attorney's office launched an investigation because of unpaid bills. The case was eventually turned over the Illinois Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Bureau, and the state filed charges of theft and financial exploitation of an elderly person in January, noting Whitehouse had power of attorney over his grandmother's finances.

On Wednesday, Whitehouse pleaded guilty to financial exploitation of an elderly person and the theft charge was dropped. He was given credit on his sentence for two days already served.

Court documents said Whitehouse used his "position of trust or confidence" with his grandmother to steal from her between April 11, 2011, and October 31, 2014.

94.1 WGFA / cg081915