AUGUSTA – A Fayette teenager was sentenced to serve five years of a 20-year sentence after she pleaded guilty Thursday to attempted murder and arson in Kennebec County Superior Court.
Alyssa Jensen set fire to her family’s home while her parents and three of her siblings slept in 2003.
Justice S. Kirk Studstrup also sentenced Jensen, 19, to six years of probation with “lots of conditions” including continuing psychiatric counseling and treatment, no contact with her family, not to live in any towns that her family lives in and not to be within 3 miles of the family home, Kennebec and Somerset District Attorney Evert Fowle said.
Jensen who was just barely 18 at the time and had been staying outside in a travel camper, poured gas inside the family’s Baldwin Hill Road home to start the fire at about 2:30 a.m. July 13, 2003.
All five family members inside at the time escaped the blaze either out a window or a door. Jensen’s mother received burns on her feet.
Jensen has been held in state custody either in jail or at Riverview Psychiatric Center in Augusta since her arrest the day after the fire. Jensen left the scene while firefighters battled the blaze and was later arrested in Oakland.
Initially when the case was first heard, Justice Donald Marden entered a finding based on a forensic evaluation that found Jensen incompetent to stand trial, Fowle said, and she was sent to Riverview for further treatment.
On Thursday, she was found competent to stand trial, Fowle said.
Deputy District Attorney Alan P. Kelley and Jensen’s attorney, J. Mitchell Flick, reached the agreement on sentencing, Fowle said.
To this day, Fowle said, “I don’t think anybody knows” why Jensen did what she did.
The sentence may seem light to some people, he said, but under the circumstances, the parties involved considered it appropriate.
What she tried to do was horrible and it could have been tragic, he said, but clearly there were psychological issues and problems involved.
Fowle said he hoped that Jensen got the treatment she needed.
Flick did not immediately return a call Friday.
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