A Hazen woman has pleaded guilty to felony charges related to drugging her grandmother and stealing her personal identifying information.

Kayla Ebach, 24, pleaded guilty Monday at the Burleigh County Courthouse to Class C felony charges of reckless endangerment, forgery and two counts of theft of property.

Ebach and her appointed defense attorney, Justin Roness, appeared before South Central District Judge Bruce Haskell. McLean County State's Attorney Ladd Erickson appeared via teleconference from Washburn.

Haskell ordered that a presentence investigation with psychological and chemical dependency evaluations be completed before sentencing. Ebach, who also was charged under the last name Schuler, could face up to five years in prison on each charge.

Ebach was charged June 1, 2007, with theft of property and reckless endangerment. Ebach told Haskell she drugged her grandmother in order to steal her personal identifying information in March 2007 at her grandmother's home in Washburn.

"I used her sleeping pill, and I put it in her coffee," she said.

Erickson said Ebach's grandmother noticed unusual charges on her credit cards and traced them back to a March day when she felt strange and passed out. The charges amounted to about $3,000, he said.

He said the woman suffered no long-term effects from the Ambien crushed and placed in her coffee.

While out on bond in that case, Ebach was charged with five more felonies for offenses against her grandmother.

Ebach was charged Jan. 7 with theft of property and four counts of forgery for stealing her grandmother's checkbook and writing checks on her account in November and December 2007. On Monday, Erickson said he would consolidate the four forgery charges into one, since the charges stem from the same course of conduct.

Ebach admitting to Haskell that she stole her grandmother's checkbook and wrote the checks.

"I used the check blanks, and I wrote them out, and I signed her name to them," Ebach said.

"And you didn't have permission to do that?" Haskell asked.

"No," she replied.

Erickson said Ebach wrote at least $10,000 in checks on her grandmother's account.

Ebach is being held in the Mercer County jail pending sentencing.

(Reach reporter Jenny Michael at 250-8225 or jenny.michael@bismarcktribune.com.)