DURANT — A former Bryan County Jailer accused of helping a prisoner escape by selling him a handcuff key will allow a judge to decide his sentence.

Anthony Michael Groff, 19, Colbert, entered a blind plea of no contest to a charge of providing a prisoner a useful aid to escape. A blind plea means no plea bargain was reached and a judge will determine the sentence.

According to the sheriff’s office, Groff provided inmate Billy Joe Wallace, 18, with a handcuff key that he used May 27 to free himself from handcuffs and leg irons while being escorted back to jail from a court appearance.

Wallace commandeered a getaway car brought by an acquaintance who was unaware of the escape plans, according to an affidavit.

Authorities said Wallace then drove to Taco Casa and picked up Jessica Dawn Miller, 19, plus a juvenile, and all three were captured after a chase.

Miller was also charged with assisting an escape because she placed a “decoy” emergency call to try to divert police from the escape, according to a court affidavit. A preliminary hearing for Miller is scheduled Oct. 7.

Groff was questioned that evening and admitted to agreeing to provide the key to Wallace for $100, although he said he was never paid, according to an affidavit.

Groff is now being held in an out-of-county jail, pending sentencing on Oct. 7. The court ordered that a pre-sentence investigation be completed on Groff.

The May 27 escape was Wallace’s second time. He also fled May 4 after he was brought to the emergency room because he had hit his head, according to the sheriff’s office. He was on the run for approximately 32 hours until being nabbed at Stone Creek Baptist Church by troopers.

Wallace recently pleaded to two charges of escape, plus first-degree robbery and was sentenced to 25 years in prison with the last 10 years suspended.

In other recent court cases, Phillip Austin Yelvington, charged in July with first-degree murder for the stabbing death of James Booker, is being sent to prison on other, unrelated convictions.

Yelvington, 34, had prior convictions in 2006 for drug possession that resulted in suspended sentences. The court revoked the suspended sentences and gave Yelvington a 10-year prison term. He remains in jail, pending transport to the State Department of Corrections.

At 3:03 a.m. on July 8, Booker dialed 911 and said he had been stabbed. When emergency responders arrived, they found Booker dead inside his residence in the 1000 block of Lynnwood Drive, according to an affidavit by Durant Police Capt. Ben Veenstra.

An investigation revealed that Yelvington lived next door to the victim, and he admitted to entering the home while in a trance, the affidavit states.

Yelvington said he began stabbing Booker after he woke up and got out of bed, according to police.

In other crime news, a Thursday chase that began in Denison, Texas, ended at the Carpenter’s Bluff Bridge in Bryan County. Authorities said that Jerry Shawn Graham jumped out of his vehicle at the bridge and fled into the woods, where he was subsequently caught by Grayson County authorities who used a taser.

He was initially brought to the Bryan County Jail but has since been taken back to Grayson County.