CHRISTIANSBURG -- A plea agreement has been reached in The Great Dr Pepper Caper.

Former Virginia Tech basketball players A.D. Vassallo and Chris Tucker, who were charged with misdemeanor shoplifting in December because of the alleged theft of a 12-pack of Dr Pepper soda, appeared in Montgomery County General District Court on Monday.

Vassallo and Tucker pleaded not guilty, but stipulated there was sufficient evidence to find them guilty.

General District Court Judge Gino Williams agreed to take their cases under advisement for one year and place them in an alternative program for shoplifters. The program, which is run by New River Community Corrections and Pretrial Services, involves taking a class.

Once they complete the program, they will be on probation until next April. If they commit no further violations, the charges will be dismissed.

Vassallo and Tucker were arrested by Virginia State Police Trooper G.A. Syres at 1:54 a.m. on Dec. 18 near a Stop In Food Stores convenience store in Christiansburg.

In an interview outside the courtroom following Monday's hearing, Syres said he witnessed Tucker take the Dr Pepper from a display outside the store and get into a car driven by Vassallo. He said Vassallo was also charged because he was driving the car and because Syres believed Vassallo knew the Dr Pepper was stolen.

Syres said he was in uniform and getting gas for his unmarked police car when he noticed on the cold and windy night that Vassallo's car was at the end of the parking lot with its passenger door open.

"That's kind of a clue," Syres said. "On such a windy night, why is the car ... all the way at the end of the parking lot with the door open?

"So I pulled into the parking lot. ... I thought, "Well, this place is getting robbed.' "

Syres said Tucker kept watching the clerk after Tucker came out of the store.

"When the clerk ... went behind the aisle where he couldn't see outside anymore, that's when he grabbed the Dr Pepper and jumped in the car and it took off," Syres said.

Syres stopped the car.

"I asked them, 'Why would you do that?' 'Just being stupid, sir' -- Tucker's the one that said that," Syres said. "They said they didn't have any money to pay for it. They bought cigars, but they didn't have any money to pay for the Dr Pepper."

Syres said Vassallo knew the soda had been shoplifted.

"Any reasonable person would have known, based on the actions of Tucker -- you come out of the store, you look, you grab the Dr Pepper and jump in the car and slam the door," Syres said. "Then you back out of your parking place rapidly and take off real quick -- it was very obvious that they were both involved."

The attorney for both ex-Hokies, Jimmy Turk, said the Montgomery County commonwealth's attorney's office and Syres approved the plea agreement.

Vassallo was also charged with driving without a license, but the commonwealth's attorney's office decided not to prosecute him on that charge.

Vassallo, who auditioned for NBA scouts at the Portsmouth Invitational this month, and Tucker declined to comment after Monday's hearing.

Vassallo, a 2009 All-ACC third-team pick, concluded his Hokie career last month as the fifth-leading scorer in Tech history. Tucker, a Lord Botetourt graduate, was a senior reserve on the 2006-07 Hokies.

Tech coach Seth Greenberg did not start Vassallo in Tech's first game after the arrest, a December win over Columbia.