Man sentenced for stealing guitar from casket

GREEN BAY (AP) -- A former groundskeeper at a Green Bay-area cemetery will spend one year in jail for stealing a $2,000 guitar from a dead man's casket.

Judge Marc Hammer placed 40-year-old Steven Conard of Bellevue on probation for four years. As a condition of probation, Conard must serve one year in the county jail and perform 80 hours of community service a year for three years.

Conard pleaded no contest to a felony charge of stealing a Fender Telecaster from a musician's casket in September. Cemetery staff members alerted police to the theft.

The defense attorney said Conard took the guitar because he was afraid it would be ruined. Conard apologized to the dead man's relatives, saying he "feels horrible every day for this.''