A federal judge warned of a life behind bars for a repeat offender sentenced Thursday for trying to pass counterfeit cash at a Texarkana convenience store last year.

“You’re a young man of only 33. I’m not going to sit here and lecture you because you’ve probably heard it all before. ... If you don’t make a change, you’re going to spend a good part of your adult life either in a federal prison or one at the state level,” U.S. District Judge David Folsom of the Eastern District of Texas told Charles Kevin Clayton, who stood with his defense attorney, Jeff Harrelson of Texarkana.