A Walla Walla man linked to a string of commercial burglaries in the fall of 2018 pleaded guilty Monday in Walla Walla County Superior Court.

Robert J. Frates, 36, pleaded not guilty Nov. 13, 2018, to three counts of second-degree burglary, first-degree theft, three counts of third-degree malicious mischief and two counts of third-degree theft.

But he fled the state and, in 2019, was arrested in Kootenai County, Idaho, on several drug charges and was sentenced in December 2019.

Walla Walla County petitioned Idaho for temporary custody, and Frates was booked into the Walla Walla County Jail on March 17. His bond is $101,600.

On Monday, he pleaded guilty to amended charges of first-degree theft, three counts of second-degree burglary and second-degree theft in the 2018 burglaries.

He also pleaded guilty to other amended charges of second-degree burglary and second-degree malicious mischief, stemming from a burglary in 2019.

Frates and Tisha A. Place, 31, of Walla Walla, were arrested Oct. 30, 2018, in connection with burglaries of 19 local businesses starting in late September 2018, according to a probable cause statement.

Place pleaded guilty March 4, 2019, and was sentenced to 364 days in jail, which were suspended in lieu of two years probation and other conditions.

Frates was conditionally released December 2018 pending trial September 2019, but he was arrested twice after that, and a warrant was issued on new charges in August 2019 in connection with a burglary at Livit Coffee on Isaacs Avenue.

Last October he was arrested on several drug charges in Kootenai County and eventually sentenced for controlled substance possession.

Frates has an offender score of more than nine, giving him a standard sentencing range of 51-68 months confinement on just one of the burglary charges. The maximum sentence is 10 years in prison and/or a $20,000 fine.

However, in exchange for his guilty pleas, prosecutors said they would recommend a prison-based Drug Offender Sentencing Alternative, or drug treatment in prison, on all counts and cases, running concurrently, as well as his Idaho cases, records stated.

However, the judge doesn’t have to follow any recommendations. His sentence date hadn’t been scheduled.

Frates has a long criminal history, which brought him to Walla Walla.

He was released in 2017 in Walla Walla after serving time in the Washington State Penitentiary for multiple felonies. He has 26 felony convictions, not including his recent ones in Idaho, including involvement in 20 burglaries in the Spokane area, according to Walla Walla police.