EVANSVILLE – The moment it began for Kevin Ray Hicks is still etched clearly in his mind.

In his hands was a torn package of mail containing a bottle of prescription pain pills. Hydrocodone.

“I don’t know what happened but my mind took me to a place I’d never been before and I started taking them,” he said. “I knew what I was doing was wrong but I couldn’t stop. I didn’t have the guts to seek help.”

Hicks, 54, told his story to Chief Judge Richard L. Young in U.S. District Court on Tuesday when he pleaded guilty to three counts of mail theft.

Twenty years of back pain, strain of long hours on the job and then helping care for a son who had lost the use of both arms and both legs in a swimming accident overwhelmed him. Feeding his addiction was easy for Hicks, whose job gave him access to prescription medicines mailed from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to military veterans in Indiana and Kentucky. read more from Evansville Courier Press

From the grand jury indictment and court case on October 28, 2014:

In January of last year, law enforcement officials began an investigation when they determined several packages containing prescription medication from the Veteran’s Administration were not being delivered to the intended recipient. The packages routed to several zip codes in Southern Indiana and Central Kentucky never made it to their destination.

Hicks worked as a manager at the Evansville Postal Processing and Distribution Facility on Petersburg Road in Evansville. As a manager, Hicks had an opportunity to steal U.S. mail. The investigation revealed from in or around July 2014 through August 2014, Hicks had allegedly stolen over 23 packages containing prescription medications, including hydrocodone, a pain relief medication, for personal use.

Hicks, also a former Postmaster was a 30-year postal employee.