(KAIR(00An Atchison man, accused of stalking and threatening an ex-girlfriend, is going to prison.

According to a release from Atchison County Attorney Sheri Becker, Thomas Blankenship was sentenced this week, in Atchison County District Court, to one year of incarceration.

The 39-year-old Blankenship, in November, plead no contest to the charges of criminal threat and stalking, ending a planned trial.

According to Becker, the Atchison Police investigation, leading to the charges and prison sentence, began in August, following a report that a woman who worked at Max's BP, west of Atchison, was threatened by Blankenship while she was on duty.

Police learned that the woman was Blankenship- ex, and that he "had been stalking her in the days leading up to the criminal threat" made inside the convenience store.