Ex-Nun Gets 5 1/2-Year Sentence in Arson Try : Courts: Attacks began after the defendant lost her job at a McDonald’s in Simi Valley. Her former supervisor sobs as she tells the judge of her fears.

A former nun who wound up homeless and serving food at a Simi Valley McDonald’s was sentenced Wednesday to 5 1/2 years in prison for trying to burn down the home of her former boss at the restaurant.

But the conviction and sentencing of Carole Lynne Alberts do not appear to have ended the ordeal of victim Suzanne Schaefer, an assistant manager at the McDonald’s at 2375 Tapo St. Although Alberts was in jail, someone threw a brick through Schaefer’s bedroom window Tuesday night, Deputy Dist. Atty. John Vanarelli said.

The incident was the latest in a string of attacks aimed at Schaefer since she fired Alberts in March, he said.

At Wednesday’s sentencing, a trembling Schaefer urged Superior Court Judge Charles R. McGrath to give Alberts the maximum prison term. Alberts, 52, was found guilty in a non-jury trial last month of two counts of attempted arson and one count of making terrorist threats after she tried to burn a blanket she had placed against the back wall of Schaefer’s home.

Schaefer told the judge she fears that someday Alberts will make good on a threat to kill her.

“My family has been permanently scarred by what has happened,” said Schaefer, 27, who sobbed uncontrollably and had to be comforted by her husband, Robert.

“She’s a dangerous woman who is capable of anything. She doesn’t have a conscience,” Schaefer added. “She set the fire in broad daylight when people were around.”

Alberts had worked as a food server at the restaurant for four days when Schaefer fired her March 16 for arguing with customers and talking to herself.

According to a probation report, Alberts began threatening Schaefer as soon as she was fired, telling Schaefer she would “rot in hell” because of the dismissal.

That same day, Alberts left a place mat on the front seat of Schaefer’s car that read “You will die and go to hell,” according to the report. She also stuck part of a knife blade through the place mat, the report said.

Investigators traced the note to Alberts by comparing the handwriting with the writing Alberts used on her employment application, the report said.

On two occasions the next day, Alberts tried to burn down Schaefer’s house in Simi Valley, the report said. The first time she torched a gate, and the second time she lit the blanket, which had been doused with gasoline.

She was arrested two days after her firing, when she arrived to collect her final paycheck. But Schaefer’s problems did not end.

She continued to receive death threats by mail and by phone after Alberts was arrested. Schaefer told the judge she also has been followed by a person who once tossed a brick at her car.

Deputy Public Defender Douglas W. Daily, Alberts’ attorney, told the judge that his client denied any involvement in the harassment.

Daily said Alberts has no friends and has not had contact with her family in two years.

“This is not the kind of individual who has people on the outside who can do what’s being suggested,” Daily said. “It seems to me she has no friends in the world.”

Daily added that a psychological report shows that Alberts suffers from mental illness, which he suggested is a result of living out of her car with her cat in the Simi Valley area.

He said she has had a series of short-lived jobs as a restaurant worker and nanny in recent years. For about six years in the 1960s, she was a Roman Catholic nun at a church in Santa Ana, according to Daily and the probation report.

Prosecutor Vanarelli told the judge that Alberts “remains in total denial” of what she did to Schaefer. He asked McGrath to sentence her to the maximum prison term instead of the probation and psychological counseling recommended by Daily.

“She’s just too dangerous,” Vanarelli said. “She’s amply demonstrated that.”

Vanarelli said the Schaefers cannot afford to move to another location to get away from Alberts.

“It’s not like they are David Letterman or Michael Jackson, where they can pack up and leave and buy themselves a castle with a wall around it,” the prosecutor said.

The judge said Alberts deserved the maximum prison term because she showed sophistication in tracking down Schaefer at home and trying to burn down the house.

Alberts appeared not to understand the sentence. “Will I be able to go to school and study nursing like I want to?” she asked the judge. She also repeated her assertion that she is innocent.

As she was being led from the court, the shackled Alberts stopped briefly in front of the Schaefers as bailiffs pulled her along.

“I’m sorry this happened to you,” she said, “but I didn’t do this.”