Photo by Evan Bevins Jason Story, right, speaks with his attorney, Joe Munoz, during a sentencing hearing Friday in Wood County Circuit Court. Story was sentenced to 10 to 36 years in prison on two counts of second-degree robbery and six months in jail, already served, on a misdemeanor charge of child neglect creating substantial risk of injury related to the 2016 death of his 9-month-old daughter by a drug overdose.

PARKERSBURG — A Parkersburg man was sentenced to at least 10 years in prison Friday for a string of robberies he said were linked to the death of his infant daughter by a drug overdose nearly two years earlier.

“That was my little girl,” Jason Lee Story, 39, said to Wood County Circuit Court Judge J.D. Beane during the sentencing hearing. “She was 9 months old. And it tears me up every day.”

Beane also sentenced Story, in custody at the North Central Regional Jail, to six months, already served, in jail on a misdemeanor charge of child neglect creating substantial risk of injury.

Ava Story, the daughter of Story and Amanda Adorante, aka Amanda Story, died in November 2016. An autopsy report revealed a mixture of heroin and fentanyl in her system, Assistant Wood County Prosecutor Lora Snodgrass said.

As a result, Adorante, Story and Ava’s grandmother, Kimberly Story, were indicted on a felony count of child neglect resulting in death.

All three wound up pleading guilty to the lesser included misdemeanor of child neglect creating substantial risk of injury. Kimbery Story was sentenced to time served in October; Adorante received the same sentence Thursday.

“It was a difficult set of facts,” Snodgrass said Friday when asked about the plea bargains. “We have three caretakers.”

Snodgrass said the investigation and testimony from Kimberly Story and Adorante indicated Jason Story was the most culpable in Ava’s death.

“They both testified to the court that Mr. Story had relapsed,” she said.

With Jason Story also facing sentencing on two second-degree robbery counts, Snodgrass said she was satisfied with the penalties.

Story was arrested in July on charges he robbed three Wood County video lottery parlors — the Stoney Cafe II, 2000 Blizzard Drive, Parkersburg; Must Be 21, 245 Elizabeth Pike, Mineral Wells; and City Perk, 3700 Emerson Ave., Parkersburg.

His attorney, Joe Munoz, said Story turned to drugs after his daughter’s death and the robberies were an effort to get money to fund his addiction.

“He’s here today because of his problems and the way he chose to poorly address his problems,” Munoz said. “He understands the likelihood of being sent to prison today. … He promises to devote his incarceration to true rehabilitation.”

Story earlier pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree robbery and the misdemeanor neglect charge. A third second-degree robbery count was dropped as part of the plea agreement.

Munoz asked that his client be sentenced to time served on the misdemeanor and be allowed to serve the robbery sentences at the same time.

Snodgrass asked that the robbery sentences be consecutive, citing the traumatic experiences of the employees, who thought they were being robbed at gunpoint, though it turned out later Story was not actually armed. She also noted that Story’s drug abuse issues predated his daughter’s death, citing arrests in 2010.

“It may have been enhanced, but clearly the defendant has had instances with substances in the past,” she said.

Beane sentenced Story to five to 18 years on each robbery charge and ordered them to be served consecutively.