Man gets 24 years in prison for possessing stolen pig statue

GRAND JUNCTION (AP) - A Colorado man is being ordered to spend 24 years in prison for possessing a bronze pig statue taken from the city's Main Street.

Forty-two-year-old Daniel Vigil learned his sentence Monday in Mesa County District Court.

A jury convicted Vigil in January on one felony count of theft by receiving. The pig statue was found in a stolen truck in which Vigil was living last April.

Mesa County District Judge Valerie Robison said the conviction was Vigil's fourth on felony charges, and she declared him a habitual offender.

That turned a six-year sentence into a 24-year term.

Vigil is now awaiting trial on a charge of vehicular assault.

He is suing Mesa County for $50 million, alleging deputies used excessive force while arresting him last June.