By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

COLUMBIANA – A 20-year-old Alabaster man will spend the next year at the Shelby County Work Release Center after he recently pleaded guilty to one felony count of first-degree theft of property.

Jacob Russell Durant, who lists an address on Whippoorwill Drive in Alabaster, pleaded guilty to the felony charge on May 6 in Shelby County Circuit Court, and received a 12-month sentence with Shelby County Work Release Center.

He also must submit to and pass random drug and alcohol screens and must avoid initiating contact with the Alabaster Walmart.

Through a plea agreement, a felony first-degree receiving stolen property charge was dropped against Durant.

The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office arrested Durant on Jan. 17 and charged him with the two felony counts. At the time of the arrest, SCSO deputies and Alabaster police officers said Durant had stolen a Baja Warrior motorcycle from the Alabaster Walmart on Jan. 16, and had stolen a military Humvee from a Birmingham Army Reserve unit on Jan. 17.

Sheriff’s Office deputies initiated a traffic stop of the military vehicle on Shelby County 11 near Shelby County 36 after receiving reports of the vehicle traveling on the wrong side of the road without using headlights.

The Humvee had been stolen from the Army Reserve station on Greensprings Highway in Birmingham, and was assigned to the 5^th Medical Brigade Army Reserve Unit.

First-degree theft of property and first-degree receiving stolen property are Class B felonies. Durant could have faced up to 20 years in prison for each charge.