Arson suspected arraigned in Mahoning County court

YOUNGSTOWN — A Beloit man, who already is in prison on a cocaine-trafficking charge, has pleaded innocent to a new charge of aggravated arson in a Sebring bar fire that occurred before he went to prison.

Samuel Lee Harper, 40, of the Lake Erie Correctional Institution in Conneaut, formerly of Steven Drive, was arraigned Tuesday before Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, who will preside over his May 18 jury trial on the new charge.

Harper is charged with setting a fire in Gator’s Pub, 179 N. 15th St., Sebring, on Dec. 15, 2007. He faces three to 10 years in prison if he’s convicted of the aggravated arson charge, which is a first-degree felony.

The fire occurred before Judge John M. Durkin of the same court sent Harper to prison for 14 months last September after finding that Harper violated his probation on the cocaine trafficking charge.

The Mahoning County grand jury indictment earlier this month on the arson charge says Harper knowingly created “a substantial risk of serious physical harm” to the pub’s occupants.