YOUNGSTOWN — Alex New, 23, of Sherwood Avenue, will be going to prison for nine years for killing Marion Bugdal, 52, at Bugdal’s home on Bennington Avenue on the East Side in July 2017.

New pleaded guilty in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court in September to involuntary manslaughter and aggravated robbery. He will get credit for more than three years spent in the Mahoning County jail awaiting trial.

Bugdal was found in the remains of his burned-out home a couple of days after he was killed. Police have said they think Bugdal was killed during a failed burglary attempt.

Detectives said they believe Bugdal was shot several times in his kitchen after confronting intruders with a pipe in his hand.

During New’s plea hearing before Judge Maureen Sweeney on Thursday, assistant Prosecutor Robert Andrews said the state and defense were recommending that New get eight to 10 years in prison.

In exchange for his guilty pleas, New’s aggravated murder and murder charges will be dismissed.

Andrews said New is apparently a “fairly intelligent guy” and got two mentally disabled co-defendants to go with him to break into a house with the promise that each co-defendant would get gold stolen from the house as their reward for helping him. Both co-defendants cooperated, Andrews said.

However, co-defendant Fred J. Nolasco, 26, was found not competent to stand trial and not restorable to competency. Andrews said he doesn’t know if Nolasco would have qualified to testify at trial against New.

Co-defendant Johnathen D. Figueroa, 22, of Sherwood Avenue, was found not competent to stand trial but restored to competency and agreed to testify against New, but he has “limitations,” making it a “very difficult case” for prosecutors, Andrews said.

The evaluations done on Figueroa are one reason the case is more than three years old, Andrews said.

Andrews said he believes New was aware of what was going to happen when the three men went to Bugdal’s house. “It was a burglary. It was a robbery. Had he planned out the murder? I don’t know about that, but certainly he was the mastermind.”

Andrews asked Sweeney to give New 10 years in prison.

Defense attorney Lou DeFabio called the case “kind of a train wreck” because it would have involved 25 witnesses, but New “did agree to put an end to this.” DeFabio said there was “no evidence anyone planned a murder.”

Family members of Bugdal were notified of the hearing, but they are all out of state, and none attended, Andrews said.

New told the judge he didn’t know the murder was going to happen and didn’t find out that Bugdal was dead until the next day.

“I didn’t see anything. It was too dark. I was scared. I fired in the dark because I heard some footsteps, and I wanted to get out of the door. I didn’t know where he was,” New said. “I didn’t murder him on purpose.” New participated in Thursday’s hearing over video from the Mahoning County jail.

Figueroa will be sentenced later.