A Dallas County jury has found Thomas Walker guilty of first degree rape.

The conviction was announced Wednesday after the jury deliberated for 30 minutes at the Dallas County Courthouse in Selma.

Walker was indicted on the charge of first degree rape in February. The rape occurred at GWC Homes.

“It was very brutal,” said District Attorney Michael Jackson. “We are going to make sure this rapist stays in prison the rest of his life.”

Testimony during the three-day trial revealed Walker came up behind the victim and attacked her on Christmas Day of 2007, said assistant District Attorney Jim Ransom.

Ransom said Walker was convicted three times previously of felonies in Alabama. Georgia also had a probation violation hold on him, but it is uncertain what the conviction was for or in what court it originated.

One of the previous convictions in Alabama was for sodomy, said Ransom, but Walker had not registered as a sex offender. “We would have gotten him for that, if we had not gotten him for rape,” the prosecutor said.

Walker will remain in the Dallas County Jail until his sentencing later. He faces life without parole because he had three prior felonies.

Circuit Judge Tommy Jones has ordered a pre-sentence report.