URBANA -- A 33-year-old Champaign man who admitted he tried to rob a pizza delivery man at a public housing complex has been sentenced to eight years in pirson.

Champaign County Judge Tom Difanis said the Dec. 29, 2009, attempted robbery to which Nathan Schoonover pleaded guilty was his eighth criminal conviction as an adult. Because of his prior convictions, including burglary and possession of a stolen vehicle, Schoonover was eligible for an extended prison term.

He pleaded guilty to hitting the pizza delivery man in the face as the man delivered a pizza at Dunbar Court in Urbana. The delivery man bit Schoonover's thumb so hard that it drew blood. That led to police matching the DNA found in blood in snow there to Schoonover.

A jury heard Schoonover's trial for attempted armed robbery in January but could not come to a unanimous verdict. He later pleaded guilty to attempted robbery.

In an unrelated case before Difanis Wednesday, Mario Staples, 33, of the 1500 block of King's Way Drive, Champaign, was sentenced to four years in prison for theft with a prior theft conviction.

He pleaded guilty in January, admitting that on Sept. 9 he stole a debit card from an employee's purse at the Dollar General in Champaign.

Staples had prior convictions for aggravated battery, possession of weapons by a felon, unlawful restraint, theft and delivery of a controlled substance.