A homeless woman with a troubled history in Portland was sentenced to three years of probation Thursday for setting two fires in the middle of downtown intersections during the city's May Day demonstrations.

Sarah Pugh, 36, pleaded guilty to second-degree arson and riot — both felonies — for her role in the melee that left department store windows smashed, a cop car vandalized and police officers dodging rocks, Molotov cocktails and full cans of soda.

Her conviction comes just days after a different demonstrator at the same protest admitted to throwing burning flares into a police cruiser and the downtown Target store. That defendant, Damion Zachary Feller, 23, will be sentenced to five years in prison next month.

Pugh declined to speak during her appearance before Multnomah County Circuit Judge Kelly Skye.

Court and police records cast Pugh as a transient who has battled with addiction and substance abuse for several years.

Pugh left her two children with family in Indiana, where she was born and raised, to travel the country, racking up arrests for assault, disorderly conduct and drug-related charges in Arizona, Californian and Tennessee, records show.

She arrived in Portland last year and took up residence on the streets, occasionally earning money by cleaning the dumpster of a city restaurant, according to court documents.

Portland police have cited Pugh for public intoxication 10 times since September 2016. She's also been arrested on suspicion of assault, disorderly conduct, interfering with a peace officer and criminal mischief, court records show.

Pugh told police that she decided to join the May 1 demonstrations after she saw the large group of people who converged on downtown, according to a probable cause affidavit.

As police and protesters clashed, she set a pile of newspaper ablaze in the intersection of Southwest Morrison Street and Southwest Park Avenue and was later captured on video holding a burning flare next to a growing bonfire on Southwest Morrison Street and Southwest Fourth Avenue.

After authorities extinguished the second fire, Pugh mooned police and then urinated on the street, court records said.

"It was my first time at an anarchist riot," Pugh later told police, court records show.

Pugh has been in custody since Aug. 26 when she was arrested on suspicion of second-degree arson, rioting and reckless burning. A report by the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office earlier this month said she was on suicide watch at the jail.

"That time has been really hard on her," her lawyer, Christopher Marin, said in court Thursday. "It's played a big role, I think, in her accepting the state's plea offer."

In addition to probation, Pugh will be required to complete 80 hours of community service and have a mental health evaluation and pay restitution for an undisclosed sum.

-- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh

skavanaugh@oregonian.com

503-294-7632 II @shanedkavanaugh