homeless man was sentenced Tuesday to 2 to 6 years in prison for robbing a priest in East Utica earlier this year.

After William Fancher, 35, was sentenced in Oneida County Court on a charge of third-degree robbery, Judge Michael L. Dwyer told Fancher he needed to get his drug problem under control.

“I’m definitely going to try,” Fancher said.

Fancher pleaded guilty in March to robbing a wallet from 88-year-old Rev. Julien Eliane Jan. 31 in the rectory of St. Basil’s Melkite Catholic Church on Sherman Drive.

When Fancher entered his plea, he wasn’t required to admit he used a knife during the robbery.

But at the time of Fancher’s arrest, city police said Fancher knocked on the front door of the rectory shortly before 4 p.m. that day and displayed a knife when Eliane answered.