PHILIP A. HOLMES/Sun-Gazette Michael Houseweart exits the Lycoming County Courthouse on Wednesday after being sentenced to 63 1/2 to 153 years for arson and other charges.

PHILIP A. HOLMES/Sun-Gazette
Michael Houseweart exits the Lycoming County Courthouse on Wednesday after being sentenced to 63 1/2 to 153 years for arson and other charges.

The incident in Fairfield Township occurred only a day after he murdered their 31-year-old daughter, Michelle Inch, who also was his girlfriend.

Houseweart, of Canton, who turns 29 on Saturday, was sentenced to serve 61 1/2 to 153 years in state prison after pleading guilty for a long string of charges he received for entering the Inches’ home on Jan. 27, 2016, binding them to their bed with duct tape and stealing things from the home before setting it on fire.

A small portion of the sentence was for stealing two checks totaling $700 from the Inches and forging their signatures before the murder and arson.

The time will run consecutively to a life sentence he received for the murder of Michelle Inch.

Brian Matthew Vroman, also of Canton, faces charges for being with Houseweart the night they entered the Inches’ home, according to court documents.

“It was an act of impulse,” Houseweart said of the arson. “It was originally not intended.”

The two men robbed the Inches because the couple were an easy target, he said. Houseweart already knew the layout of the house and he needed money and didn’t want to come down from the cocaine and meth he had been on for nearly a week, he said.

He also admitted he shot and stabbed Michelle Inch almost a week into the drug binge.

“What I have caused you is a hellacious nightmare,” Houseweart said to the Inches, who were sitting in the courtroom. “I am truly sorry for the pain and suffering I have caused. I just hope that one day you and God can forgive me for what I’ve done because I never will.”

Houseweart and Vroman used a key to get into the Inches’ home on Jan. 27, 2016. They wore masks and carried a rifle.

“We woke them up and told them they were being robbed and not to move,” he said. “I was holding the rifle.”

The two men duct-taped the couple while they lay in their bed. “First Mrs. Inch, then Mr. Inch,” Houseweart said.

They then took turns pointing the rifle at the couple while the other went through the house, stealing things each could find.

“We took a lot of change, some cash, a flat-screen TV and I think he (Vroman) took a poker set,” Houseweart said.

It wasn’t until the two men were outside that Houseweart saw the can of gasoline he had left in his car from earlier that day and went back inside.

“I don’t know how to describe it,” he said. “It was a temporary slip, and I didn’t know what I was doing. I have no reasonable explanation for it.”

Houseweart dumped the gasoline on the basement stairs and used a lighter he always carried to ignite the puddle, he said.

Vroman wasn’t aware of the fire until he saw the flames when the two were pulling away in Michelle Inch’s car.

“He asked, ‘What was all that about?’ ” Houseweart said. “I told him I was just trying to scare them.”

Linda Inch managed to free herself and ran to a neighbor’s house. First responders rescued her husband.

Gary Inch underwent two hospital stays, including four days in a Lehigh Valley burn center.

He collapsed on the stairs of his home because of smoke inhalation, he said in court.

Linda Inch also suffered injuries and smoke inhalation but less seriously than her husband.

Houseweart told Judge Marc F. Lovecchio that he was highly addicted to painkillers and cocaine for years until he was put in prison for the crimes. He had started using methamphetamine shortly before the murder and arson.

District Attorney Eric R. Linhardt asked the court to impose an 85-year sentence tacked onto Houseweart’s current life sentence.

“Few crimes are more terrifying than to be woken in the middle of the night by masked gunmen, to be bound by duct tape, robbed at gunpoint and have your home set on fire as the perpetrators flee,” Linhardt said. “Mr. Houseweart has forfeited his right to live in society.”

A sentence less than 85 years would fail to hold the defendant accountable for his crimes and fail to give the victims the justice they deserve, Linhardt said.

“This couple had to wake up to the worst possible scenario and I can’t bring myself to imagine what went through their minds when they were faced with the possibility of burning to death,” Lovecchio said. “You took away everything from them … had they died, there is no doubt in my mind you’d be given the death penalty.”

Vroman is scheduled to plead guilty in Lycoming County Court on April 28.