Changing a fake $100 bill at a Roanoke Lowe's store to fund a crack cocaine buy brought an Eden, N.C., man eight months in prison Tuesday.

Donnell Elbert Corbett, 57, had pleaded guilty in May to a federal charge of passing counterfeit money. Two more charges were dropped in a plea agreement.

Corbett, a painter working for a company that painted Lowe's stores, tried to spend three counterfeit $100 bills at the Lowe's on Rutgers Street Northwest on June 10 and 11, 2005.

At Corbett's sentencing hearing Tuesday, his attorney, Allegra Black of the federal public defender's office, asked that he be given probation rather than prison time.

"This is a situation where Mr. Corbett was admittedly addicted to crack cocaine and succumbed to the temptation of easy money," Black said.

Corbett did not manufacture the false money and "was merely a pawn in this operation," she said.

Since his apprehension in 2005, Corbett has had clean drug screens and has cooperated with authorities, Black said. He has held a steady job for six years, she said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Charlene Day agreed that Corbett had cooperated and stayed out of trouble. But Day asked for the minimum sentence under federal guidelines that recommended eight to 14 months in prison and a fine of $500 to $5,000.

U.S. District Court Judge Glen Conrad said Corbett's prior criminal record ruled out a sentence of only probation.

Passing the $100 bills was "not the worst offense, but it's something someone with your record should have known to stay away from," he said. "Your criminal conduct has repeated itself on a number of occasions."

Conrad sentenced Corbett to eight months in prison and two years of supervision by federal probation officers afterward. He waived a fine but ordered Corbett to repay Lowe's $298.24.

Day said after the hearing that authorities think the fake bills were printed in North Carolina but have not tracked down who made them.