A former judge who stole guns from a pawn shop dodged jail time.
Hector De Pena Jr. was arrested in 2015 after taking weapons from a pawn shop in Annaville and then selling them to another one.
According to court documents, an employee at the Gold and Things Pawn Shop spotted De Pena walking out of the back of the store with a pistol. He then put it back, ran off and called to apologize.
The store later checked its inventory and found four pistols missing.
Police ran De Pena’s name through a pawn shop database and found two guns were either pawned or sold to the “First Cash Pawn” nearby.
A fourth gun missing from Gold and Things was never found.
De Pena, a former County Court at Law judge, was facing three counts of theft of a firearm another count of burglary to a building.
On March 18, De Pena was placed in a pre-trial diversion program as part of his punishment.
According to court documents, he must attend anti-theft classes, pay the pawn shop $1,000 in restitution, and continue mental health treatment and attend anti-theft classes.
De Pena must meet all of the condition of the program in order to avoid going to jail.
