ELLSWORTH — The 19-year-old inmate who tried unsuccessfully to escape from Piscataquis County Jail pleaded guilty Monday to nine charges stemming from a fire that heavily damaged a North Sullivan home and a string of residential burglaries in Hancock last fall.

James Cox of Stonington changed his plea to guilty on one count of arson, three counts of theft and five counts of burglary in Hancock County Superior Court.

In Piscataquis County, he faces additional charges of attempted escape, aggravated assault and possession of prison contraband in connection with his foiled escape last week from that county’s jail. He is being held without bail at the Maine State Prison in Thomaston.

Hancock County District Attorney Michael Povich said Monday he recommended Cox be sentenced to a 12-year prison term with all but six years suspended.

Cox was being held at the Piscataquis jail for Hancock County. Around 4 a.m. on Jan. 20, the inmate reportedly disabled the lock on his cell door, armed himself with the leg of a TV table from the prisoners’ day room and accessed the facility’s control room.

He allegedly surprised the two corrections officers from behind, clubbing one of them with the table leg.

The yell of injured corrections officer Tom Harvey sent another corrections officer running from another part of the jail. The jailers managed to subdue Cox and lock him up again. Harvey suffered a large gash on his head and received stitches at Mayo Regional Hospital in Dover-Foxcroft.

Piscataquis jail officials said Cox apparently had been planning his jail break for several days. The inmate was being held in a cell opposite the control room. His attempted escape has led to an internal investigation into jail procedures.

Last November, Cox was arrested by Hancock County deputies at a seasonal home owned by Elinor Ehrman on Merchant’s Drive in Hancock. He reportedly had been living there as a squatter. A 12-gauge Mossberg shotgun, .38-caliber Smith & Wesson handgun, a Makita drill and other stolen goods were found there. An electric heater had been hooked up and was on in the bedroom. Gunshots had been fired into a closet door and the living-room wall.

The guns and other materials were identified as having been stolen from the Harold Church residence in Hancock. A Pioneer stereo system and tools belonging to Hancock resident John Merchant, as well as a radio and tools taken from the Richard A. Merchant residence also were found.

At the time, Cox was charged with arson in connection with an Oct. 4 fire at the seasonal residence of Mildred Bunker in North Sullivan. The blaze caused more than $150,000 in damage. The white clapboard house had been broken into through a shed window and ransacked.

Cox became a suspect in the fire after investigators traced toll calls made from the Bunker residence before the fire. Some of the recipients of the phone calls to Houlton, Southwest Harbor, Littleton and Mattawamkeag confirmed speaking to Cox during the period when the calls were made.