North Haverhill — A former Woodsville attorney pleaded guilty on Tuesday to pocketing nearly $44,000 that should have been paid to the estate of a Haverhill resident.

Gary J. Wood, 63, was sentenced to one year in the Grafton County jail in connection with the felony-level theft by misappropriation charge.

Upon release, he will be put on probation for two years.

Wood already has reimbursed the stolen funds by issuing a check for $43,927 to the estate of Haverhill farmer Irving W. Thayer in the name of its executor, Alan Rutherford. Thayer died in 2014.

The money will be disbursed among 11 of Thayer’s relatives, including his niece Irene Fournier.

“I am very happy that we all will be receiving our money,” Fournier said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. “I just don’t understand why people do the things they do. I realize it is the way of the world, but it is a hard pill to swallow when it hits you in your backyard.”

Rutherford, a Haverhill real estate appraiser and registered tax preparer, said on Wednesday there are a couple of legal steps that need to be cleared before he could distribute the money among Thayer’s relatives.

If everything goes as planned, they should receive their money within a couple of weeks, he said.

Rutherford said he felt the outcome of the case was appropriate.

“The family got their money,” Rutherford said. “That was the ultimate goal.”

Grafton County Attorney Jack Bell, who prosecuted the case, agreed.

“Given the fact that Mr. Wood made the victims whole immediately, that he had no prior criminal record and was cooperative with both the investigation by the New Hampshire Bar (Association) and the police and admitted his guilt, I thought it was appropriate,” Bell said.

Once Wood is released from jail and put on probation, he won’t be allowed to drink alcohol and will have to undergo a substance abuse evaluation, according to court documents.

A message left for Wood’s public defender, Constantine Hutchins, wasn’t returned.

Wood was disbarred from practicing over the summer, and would need to petition in order to have his license reinstated.

At Rutherford’s request, Wood deposited the estate money into his own attorney trust account, according to the January 2015 indictment.

The attorney was supposed to later return the money to Thayer’s estate, but failed to do so. He instead treated the “funds as his own,” the indictment said.

Jordan Cuddemi can be reached at jcuddemi@vnews.com or 603-727-3248.