TACOMA - The woman convicted of a 2001 ecoterror attack on the University of Washington was sentenced to six years in prison Thursday and ordered to pay $6.1 million in restitution.

Brianna Waters, 32, of Oakland, Calif., was sentenced after being found guilty in March of two counts of arson for her role as a lookout in the destructive fire at the university's Center for Urban Horticulture.

In announcing the sentence, U.S. District Judge Franklin D. Burgess found that Waters' crime went beyond arson, and that it amounted to terrorism.

But in an emotional statement to the court, Waters disputed that finding.

"I am a mother - I am not a terrorist," she said, her eyes welling up with tears. "I am a person that believes in peace. ... I am praying for the victims."

Prosecutors, meanwhile, sought to portray her as a common criminal involved in what they called "one of the most serious arsons in the last quarter century."

“She’s not Mother Theresa - she’s not curing cancer, she’s not extraordinary. She’s ordinary,” they said, adding that Waters is "self indulgent — blaming everyone but herself for her predicament."

Prosecutors had recommended 10 years in prison as a way of signalling to other potential eco-terrorists that there would be repercussions for their actions, and that even the mother of a 3-year-old daughter with no criminal history would spend the next decade in jail.

The maximum sentence possible was 20 years.

Judge Burgess said he considered and wrestled with this case for a long time and noted, “There are consequences for actions.”

Her attorney said he would appeal the conviction and six-year sentence, and plans to do so as early as this week.

The judge noted that the court had received 250 letters that were supportive of Waters.

Waters' mother, Marilyn Waters, and Brianna Water's partner were there in the courtroom as the sentence was handed down.

“She is a good person," Marilyn Waters said of hger daughter. "The way the government has characterized her is not who she is.”

Brianna Waters, wearing a khaki uniform, asked that she be allowed to serve her prison sentence in California, so that she can be nearer to her child.

"Every day that I am away from her is more pain than I can describe," she said. "I'm not begging for your mercy but I am asking you to consider the facts of my life."

"I just want to put this experience behind be and move on with my life," she added.

During Waters' trial, the jury deadlocked on three counts, including the big one, using a destructive device during a crime of violence, which would have carried a mandatory minimum of 30 years in prison.