MARION COUNTY — A 23-year-old Centralia man has been sentenced to a combined four years in prison in connection with unrelated charges of theft and of falsely claiming he had been sexually assaulted in the Marion County Jail.

Dustin Minor-Fields pleaded guilty in two separate cases to Class 3 felony theft and Class 4 felony filing a false report.

According to court records, Fields was arrested in December 2016 for theft of money from a Centralia home after his fingerprints were found inside the safe taken during a break-in. He was sentenced in that case to 1-year in the Illinois Department of Corrections.

The owner of the safe reportedly found it abandoned in a trailer near his home the day after it was taken.

While in custody on the theft charge, Fields filed a report with a federal hotline accusing a Marion County correctional officer with inappropriately touching him.  Video surveillance showed the correctional officer wasn’t even near Fields at the time he said he was touched.  He was sentenced in that case to three years in IDOC to be served consecutively with the theft sentence.

In addition to the four-year prison sentence, Fields will have to serve 1-year mandatory supervised release after he completes his prison term. He was given credit for time already served in the Marion County Jail.