A Douglas County judge Friday ordered a 21-year-old Huntsville, Ala., man to serve two years on probation for his role in a Dec. 11 Lawrence apartment burglary.

District Judge Michael Malone told Scott A. McDowell, who was a student and football player at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Mo., at the time of his arrest, that he would have to spend 18 months in prison if he violated his probation.

McDowell had pleaded guilty in February to burglary and conspiracy to commit burglary. Prosecutors said McDowell and two other men — Nicholas Allen, 21, and Jeremy Noland, 19 — climbed through an apartment window they broke at Grove Apartments, 4301 W. 24th Place, where they hoped to rob one of Allen’s former neighbors.

Witnesses told police they saw three men crawl out of the window carrying a laptop computer. A Kansas Highway Patrol trooper arrested the men later in Overbrook, 28 miles southwest of Lawrence.

Defense attorney Greg Robinson said McDowell had already spent 62 days in jail before the plea in the case and that his client exhibited a “lapse of judgment” by participating in the scheme.

Malone said McDowell had no prior criminal history before this case and that probation was the proper sentence under state sentencing guidelines.

Allen and Noland are scheduled to be sentenced in the next month.