A woman who attacked a JC Penney loss-prevention employee with needle-nose pliers in 2011 was sentenced Monday to five years in prison and 10 years on probation.

An employee spotted Barbara Ann Wright, 41, of Milledgville, going into a dressing room at the Macon Mall store on Feb. 23, 2011, with a stack of items. She emerged 42 seconds later after stuffing the merchandise into a JC Penney shopping bag, said Deshala Dixon, a Bibb County prosecutor.

She had previously been served a notice barring her from the store and had been charged with shoplifting four times, Dixon said.

Wright went into the parking lot, saw the loss-prevention employee coming after her, and dropped the bag. She tried to go back inside the store, but ended up struggling with the employee instead, she said.

During the struggle, she cut the employee with the pliers on his back and hand, Dixon said.

Wright pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and shoplifting during a Monday hearing in Bibb County Superior Court. A criminal trespass charge was dismissed as a result of the plea.

While on probation, Wright is banned from the mall.