WEST BATON ROUGE PARISH - A former executive with the West Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce will face one year in jail after being convicted of one count of theft. 

Marie Anais Brand faced a charge of felony theft of an amount over $25,000. Her sentencing was held Thursday, during which Brand was sentenced to five years of hard labor. The judge presiding over the case suspended all but 18 months of the sentence with the last six of those set to be served as in-home incarceration. 

This means Brand will spend one year in jail before spending the last six months at home. Her sentence will be followed by three years of probation, in addition to the court fines and restitution Brand will be ordered to pay. 

She owes $600 in fines, $305 in court costs, $9,668 in restitution to the chamber, and $26,852 to the chamber's insurance company.

She was arrested in late 2020, near the US-Mexico border, on drug charges, but an investigation led to new allegations of theft in February 2021, after the chamber discovered disparities in its finances and notified law enforcement.

Brand served as the events and operations coordinator for the chamber until her legal troubles began.