BANGOR – A 22-year-old Dover-Foxcroft woman decided Friday not to change her guilty pleas and accepted a sentence twice as long as the one recommended by the Penobscot County District Attorney’s Office.

Justice Jeffrey Hjelm sentenced Jill Grant to fours years in prison with all but 18 months suspended and four years probation for an incident in January 2001 that left her 7-week-old son permanently disfigured. Hjelm also stayed the imposition of the sentence for 14 days to allow Grant to wean herself off methadone, which she has been taking as part of a drug treatment program.

Grant pleaded guilty in November to a felony assault charge stemming from the incident with her son, one count each of theft by deception, unlawful possession of drugs, violating conditions of release and five counts of negotiating a worthless instrument.

Mark McDonough, Grant’s Bangor attorney, unsuccessfully argued that his client would be better served by Drug Court than prison time. Grant was rejected by that court’s evaluation team last week because of the length of her sentence.

The Drug Court has not accepted participants serving sentences longer than nine months, according to Deputy District Attorney Michael Roberts, who is a member of the team.

In December, prosecutors recommended that Grant serve nine months, which would have allowed her to be incarcerated at Penobscot County Jail in Bangor. Because she must serve more than a year, Grant will be imprisoned at one of the state’s prisons.

Hjelm told Grant in December that, despite the fact that she had no criminal history, the serious nature of the injuries suffered by her young son would cause him to impose a harsher sentence. Because he rejected the plea agreement reached by the district attorney, Hjelm gave Grant the opportunity to change her pleas.

Grant’s son was severely burned by a hand-held hair dryer she placed next to him as “white noise” while she took a shower on Jan. 29, 2001. She told police that the infant must have grabbed the cord and pulled it closer than she had left it. Hjelm said last year that a state forensic expert was prepared to testify that, developmentally, the baby was incapable of such an action.

Grant no longer has custody of the child.