Lenny Dykstra Jail Sentence: 3 Years for Grand Theft Auto

Former New York Mets star Lenny Dykstra was sentenced to three years in prison on Monday after pleading no contest to grand theft auto and providing a false financial statement.

Dykstra, known as Nails during his 11-year baseball career, was caught in January 2011 trying to lease luxury cars through a phony business. He was initially charged with 25 counts, but prosecutors dropped 21 of the charges in October when he decided to plead no contest.

Prosecutors pursued the maximum four-year sentence and Dykstra's lawyer believes that his client was unfairly sentenced due to his celebrity status.

No way this wasn't a probationary case, Andrew Flier told reporters. To give him state prison is outrageous. I find it disgusting.

Dykstra himself admitted to mistakes but believed that he shouldn't have to go to prison.

I do have remorse for some of the things I've done, he said. But because I wasn't a perfect person am I a criminal? Everyone wants to make me out to be a monster.

The sentence is just the latest in the downward spiral of the former baseball All-Star. Dykstra was once billed as a financial whiz while working for Jim Cramer's The Street, but the past few years has been a series of financial messes for him. At one point he claimed to owe $31 million dollars with only $50,000 in assets, according to The Associated Press, and tried and failed to start a luxury magazine.

He is still facing bankruptcy charges for selling and/or destroying $400,000 worth of property owed to his bankruptcy trustees. He reportedly sold his 1986 World Series ring, among other items, without the government's permission.

Dykstra will serve his prison time in a California state prison.