Two Washtenaw County brothers were convicted Friday for their roles in a vengeful firebombing at a Freedom Township bar last year.

But both Joshua and Joseph Hafner-Canter won’t face charges of conspiracy and attempted murder for the Sept. 11, 2009 attack at the Pleasant Lake Inn, according to separate but similar plea agreements.

Joseph, 20, of Saline, and Joshua, 19, pleaded guilty to six felony counts of arson, conspiracy to commit arson and placing an explosive device near a building, causing damage.

Sentencing for both is tentatively scheduled for mid-February, after co-defendants Nicholas Krause and Joshua McClellan are scheduled to stand trial on nine felony counts. Washtenaw County Assistant Prosecutor Sam Holtz said no sentencing agreement is in place, and negotiations with defense attorneys continue. He told Circuit Judge Archie Brown he will request each brother face a minimum of four years in prison. They remain in custody.

Any sentencing agreement is contingent on the brothers’ testimony against Kraus and McClellan, as well as any other people involved who are currently not facing charges, Holtz said.

The brothers described to Brown how they were involved in an elaborate scheme orchestrated by a man named William Ferris to settle a dispute with the bar’s owner over money. They said Ferris wanted to send a message and took them to a sporting goods store to purchase two jars of gun powder and to a fireworks store for fuses.

McClellan reportedly assembled the bomb, which was covered with duct tape and bolts, they said. The device had a handle, was roughly a foot long and resembled a football, which is what the men called it.

Joseph said he lit the fuse, and McClelland allegedly threw it toward the building after Kraus and James Prevost set fire to a hallway in the bar’s basement as a diversion. Several people were inside a residential area in the basement at the time, but no one was injured. The bomb blew a hole in the deck and shattered windows.

Amid tears, Joshua told Brown he was the designated look-out for the operation and was across the street when the bomb exploded. The Manchester resident initially appeared reluctant to sign the plea agreement, but relented as attorney Laura Dudley explained he faced up to 20 years in prison upon conviction on arson, and up to life on the attempted murder and conspiracy charges.

Ferris, 54, is currently serving between six and 20 years in prison for drug possession and burning real property in Lenawee County in 2009, records show. Neither he nor Prevost is charged in the crime, and Holtz declined to comment on whether they could face charges.

Art Aisner is a freelance writer for AnnArbor.com. Reach the news desk at news@annarbor.com or 734-623-2530.