photo by: Douglas County Sheriff's Office

Jessica Michelle Stephenson

A woman convicted in connection with a fire in the stairwell of a Lawrence apartment complex was sentenced on Tuesday to nearly two years in prison.

The woman, Jessica Michelle Stephenson, 27, of Lawrence, pleaded no contest to one felony count of attempted aggravated arson in July as part of a plea agreement with the state. Before the agreement, she was instead charged with a more serious felony, aggravated arson of a dwelling, as the Journal-World reported.

At Stephenson’s plea hearing, prosecutors said that around 4 a.m. on Dec. 5, 2022, emergency crews responded to the 24-unit Meadowbrook Apartments complex at 2711 Brittany Place and found a small fire in a stairwell on the first floor. Crews quickly extinguished the fire, and they also located a trash can nearby that had been burned, prosecutors said.

Judge Amy Hanley on Tuesday sentenced Stephenson to 21 months in prison in accordance with Kansas sentencing guidelines. The guidelines call for either probation or prison based on the offender’s criminal history, but Hanley said Stephenson was not eligible for probation. In 2019, Stephenson was convicted in Douglas County of felony burglary and misdemeanor battery on a law enforcement officer, and she has misdemeanor convictions for assault and multiple other battery incidents in Douglas County, according to court records.

Before she was sentenced, Stephenson said she wanted the court to know that at the time of the incident, she was off of her medication for bipolar disorder and had been in and out of mental health facilities.

“It felt like my brain was on shuffle,” Stephenson said, adding that she has since restarted her medications.

Stephenson has been in custody since her arrest in December. Hanley awarded her 260 days, or 8.6 months, of time served and said that if she behaves well in prison her sentence could be reduced by as much as 20%, or 4.2 months.