Former ‘Top Model’ Finalist Sentenced To 12 Years In Prison For Palm Springs-Area Crimes

A former “America’s Next Top Model” finalist pleaded guilty Wednesday to several criminal charges, including a break-in at a Palm Springs home, and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Renee Diane Alway, 28, who finished in the top three of Cycle 8 of “Top Model,” which aired in 2007, pleaded guilty to four counts of burglary and one count each of vehicle theft and being a felon in possession of a firearm – all felonies – and a misdemeanor count of identity theft for crimes she committed in June 2013 in the Palm Springs area.

Alway, who has been in custody on $150,000 bail since her arrest last year, was also ordered to pay more than $58,000 in restitution to the victims.

More than a dozen other counts, including receiving stolen property, possession of a controlled substance and resisting an officer, were dismissed under the plea agreement.

Alway was arrested on June 28, 2013. Officers investigating a report of a “suspicious female” in the area found an open back door at a home in the 600 block of Violeta Drive in Palm Springs and discovered Always hiding in the garage of the home, Palm Springs police Sgt. Harvey Reed said. The residents were out of the country at the time of the break-in.