A Durant man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading no contest this week to to burglarizing two businesses.

Brent Eugene Walker, 38,was sentenced to 20 years in prison, although five years of the sentence are suspended.

Walker was arrested in March after Bryan County Sheriff’s Deputy Joey Tucker responded to a burglary in progress call on DeVault Lane in Durant. An affidavit states that JC Blackburn, the property owner, observed a pickup next to his shop and that there were tires in the back he recognized as his.

A man, later identified as Walker, said he “was fixing to rent the property,” and he then got into his pickup and left, according to the affidavit.

Blackburn followed Walker and notified the Bryan County Communications Center that the pickup was traveling on Highway 22 toward Kenefic.

Deputy Tucker contacted Caddo Police Officer Chris Orozco and asked him to watch for the pickup. The affidavit states that Orozco found it traveling at Nails Crossing Road. The officer stopped the pickup, and Walker, when asked if he knew why he was being stopped, said, “I didn’t steal anything. I’m just driving around.”

In July, Walker was arrested and again charged with second-degree burglary after Durant Police said he broke into Morris Monuments on Cemetery Road.

According to an affidavit by Officer Travis Dill, James Morris, the business owner, said his security company notified him that a motion detector had been triggered. A couple later identified as Walker and Sheila Lynn Odum, 29, had been seen near the business, and video surveillance showed them looking around behind the building.

After obtaining a description of the suspects, Dill provided the information to Patrol Capt. Andy Navid, who found Walker and Odum walking in the 700 block of South Third Avenue, the affidavit states.

They were brought back to the business for identification, and according to the affidavit, Odum told Lt. Brock Jones that Walker entered the business while she served as the “lookout.”

Walker denied any involvement in the crime. Odum was also charged with the crime.

According to court records, Walker has prior convictions for escape from the Department of Corrections and attempted escape from the county jail, drug possession, running a roadblock and false personation of another.