Taney County Prosecuting Attorney, Jeffrey M. Merrell, announced today that Blaine Powers, DOB: 3/01/1989, of Montgomery County, Illinois, was sentenced Thursday, September 26, 2013, by Circuit Judge Mark Orr to five (5) years in prison for felony forgery. Powers’ felony forgery charge was related to him possessing counterfeit twenty dollar bills, and passing them at Wal-Mart in Branson, in August of 2010. The sentence was part of a guilty plea reached between Powers and the Taney County Prosecutor’s Office.

Powers also had his felony probation for the class B felony of stealing revoked by Judge Orr, for which Powers was ordered to serve ten (10) years in the Missouri Department of Corrections. Powers was on felony probation for his role in the dismantling of the Grand Palace Theater from 2009 through 2010. Powers’ father, Michael Poivey, was sentenced in May of 2013 to twenty (20) years in prison for leading a group of thieves who illegally entered the Grand Palace Theater and essentially stripped it. Over $900,000.00 worth of materials were stolen from within the Grand Palace, leaving it unusable.

Much of the delay in finalizing Powers’ sentences was related to his escape to the State of Illinois, the time required to get him arrested there, and the process of extraditing him back to Taney County.