LISBON — A Youngstown woman who entered a guilty plea midway through her jury trial last month for two counts of aggravated arson must serve at least three years in prison.

Sarah Bowker, 56, faced sentencing Friday in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court for the two charges, one a first-degree felony and one a second-degree felony, related to a Dec. 24, 2022 arson fire on Metz Road in Columbiana that the county prosecutor’s office described as “whiskey-fueled.”

Judge Megan Bickerton issued an indefinite term of three to four and half years for the first degree felony and an indefinite term of two to three years in prison for the second-degree felony, but ordered them served concurrently, or at the same time.

An indefinite term means she must serve the minimum three years, then the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections decides whether she must stay the additional year and a half to bring the maximum total to four and a half years.

Bowker entered her plea after the jury trial had already begun. Bickerton ordered her taken into custody pending sentencing at that time, with a new bond set at $100,000 cash or surety.

The possible penalty for the first-degree felony was a mandatory indefinite term of three to 11 years and then two to eight years for the second-degree felony.

The indictment alleged that Bowker created a substantial risk of serious physical harm to Kenneth L. Titus by means of fire or explosion and caused physical harm to an occupied structure at 41299 Metz Road, Columbiana, in Fairfield Township.

When the fire occurred, it was reported that the Columbiana Fire Department was called to the Metz Road home at 5:31 p.m. Dec. 24, 2022. The two residents, a male and a female, were both out of the structure when the fire department arrived, with one at one neighbor’s home and the other at another neighbor’s home. They were both transported to Salem Regional Medical Center for treatment of injuries.

At the time, Andy Ellinger, a public information officer with the Ohio Department of Commerce, State Fire Marshal’s Office, said it was determined that the fire was intentionally set.

Bowker, who was one of the residents, was indicted a year later in December 2023.

According to the prosecutor’s office social media post after the plea, it was determined that Bowker was intoxicated and deliberately set fire to furniture in the residence after an argument with her boyfriend. Investigators reported finding a propane torch sitting near two empty whiskey bottles in the garage.