A Pensacola woman was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday after pleading no contest to pouring gasoline on a store clerk and setting her on fire in 2022.

Escambia County (Fla.) Circuit Court Judge Linda Nobles sentenced 32-year-old Betty McFadden to life in prison for attempted 1st-degree murder, despite expert findings that McFadden suffers from severe mental illness, according to the Pensacola News Journal.

Nobles rejected the pleas of McFadden’s attorney to pass a more lenient sentence on McFadden so she could seek help for the bipolar and schizoaffective disorders which from which a psychiatrist said she suffers. Dr. Stephen Zieman said McFadden has a “lifetime of treatment needs ahead of her.”

Regardless, Nobles described McFadden as a “dangerous human being,” and said letters from the victim and the family weighed heavily in her decision. Nobles acknowledged McFadden had a difficult childhood and had been homeless for many years.

“But there are a lot of people that are dealt bad hands that don’t go on to set somebody on fire,” Nobles said, according to the report.

The incident occurred at a Circle K store on March 30, 2022. McFadden had been panhandling outside the store and was told to leave, according to the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office.

Investigators said McFadden returned later in the day with a gas can, asking people for money to fill it. Once there was gas in the can, she walked into the store and poured gasoline store clerk Joie Hellmich. Hellmich attempted run, but McFadden had matches hidden in her bra and began to throw the lit matches at Hellmich, catching her on fire, according to the sheriff’s office.

Hellmich suffered 2nd- and 3rd-degree burns over 33% of her body. Another employee who came to Hellmich’s aid with a bucket of water was also burned in the incident.

A letter written by Hellmich was read in open court, according to the PNJ, in which she said she is not the same person she had been before the incident and may never be again.

“Like my emotional scars, I will never be the same again physically,” she wrote.