MIDDLEBURG — A convicted arsonist who got in trouble while serving time in the Snyder County jail has pleaded guilty to simple assault for punching a fellow inmate in the face last fall.

Alvin Ray Hoover, 36, is facing a maximum two-year state prison term for the October assault in which he knocked out three teeth of a 50-year-old inmate, Donald Cooper, of Selinsgrove.

Two other charges, assault by prisoner and harassment, were dropped.

At the time of the assault, Hoover was in jail serving an 11 1/2-month to 23-month sentence for burning down his parents’ business, Irvin’s Country Tinware, in Mount Pleasant Mills on Aug. 7, 2007.

After serving 20 months on the arson charge, Hoover petitioned the court for parole last week and was denied for failing to find a suitable place to live and transportation to and from a mental-health treatment program.

He’s scheduled to be sentenced for the assault charge in the next few months.