CRIME: NFL Star Chris Jones Offers to Pay for $1.5 Million Worth of Stolen Chicken Wings After Cafeteria Worker Is SENTENCED to… Read more

“My fate is in God’s hands,” Vera Liddell told her lawyer shortly before the Kansas City Chiefs defensive tackle tweeted his offer

When the Chicago defense lawyer saw reports that an NFL star wanted to put down over $1 million of his own money to get a local cafeteria worker out of prison, he thought it was a hoax.

Then, Patrick O’Byrne tells PEOPLE, he got a call from someone he understands represents Chris Jones, confirming the Kansas City Chiefs defensive tackle’s tweet in which he promised: “I’ll pay for the wings that she stole to get her free.”

In a case that has since gone viral, last week, Vera Liddell, who was working as a cafeteria consultant for an Illinois school district, admitted to stealing $1.5 million worth of chicken wings – 11,000 cases – between July 2020 and February 2022, according to her other lawyer, Gregory LaPapa. The chicken wings were intended for underprivileged children receiving free lunches during the pandemic shutdown, he says.

(PEOPLE reached out to The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office for more information, but they did not respond in time for publication.)

O’Byrne says the church-going 68-year-old woman from Cook County, Ill., who had no previous criminal record, made false orders of chicken wings, which she then resold and gambled away the proceeds.

“She’s just a little sweetheart that’s got a gambling problem,” says O’Byrne, adding: “She feels beyond terrible about this. This is totally uncharacteristic of her. It was the disease taking over.”

Records obtained by PEOPLE show that she struggled financially, filing for bankruptcy at least twice in Chicago courts in 2009 and 2016.

On Friday, Aug. 9, Liddell pleaded guilty to one count of felony theft of more than $1 million and was sentenced to 9 years in prison, according to the Cook County’s Sixth Municipal District Circuit Court clerk’s office.

Liddell – who, per the courts, was given credit for the six days she had already spent in jail – is slated for discharge Aug. 3, 2030 and will be up for parole in 2029, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections online inmate roster.