San Diego

A former heroin addict who won $1 million in California’s Big Spin was placed on three years’ probation Monday for writing 18 bad checks for $987.

Terry Garrett, who is in his 40s and now lives in San Jose, appeared before San Diego Superior Court Judge Andrew Wagner for sentencing on a 1987 charge stemming from his writing checks with insufficient funds sometime after he won the lottery.

Garrett was given credit for five days already spent in jail and he issued a check to the court for $987 to cover the losses sustained by the Long’s Drug Stores.

In 1987, Garrett won $1 million when he played on the Big Spin. He receives $40,000 per year for 20 years.

A few months after winning the lottery, Garrett, who previously had a criminal record stemming from a drug habit he said he got while serving in Vietnam, was sent to prison for two years for stealing liquor from a drug store.

Garrett had pleaded guilty to writing the bad checks and on Monday the judge reduced the offense to a misdemeanor when restitution was paid to the court.

The judge commented that the crime was “loony,” considering Garrett’s winnings.

Garrett made news when he testified as a defense witness for Sagon Penn at his murder trial in 1986, when Penn was charged with killing an officer, and attempted murder of another officer and a civilian ride-along on March 31, 1985.

Garrett said the wounded officer, Donovan Jacobs, made racial slurs to him during a drug arrest and beat him.