OAN’s Abril Elfi
4:13 PM – Wednesday, November 29, 2023
A man from Texas has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to setting a synagogue ablaze.
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On Wednesday, 20-year-old Franklin Sechriest was sentenced to 10 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to arson and a hate crime.
On top of his sentence, he was also demanded to pay $470,000 in restitution to Congregation Beth Israel Synagogue, and to serve an additional three years of supervised release once he gets out of prison.
In October of 2021, a fire was reported at Congregation Beth Israel in central Austin, Texas.
According to security footage, the arsonist’s Jeep was at the synagogue just moments before the fire started and he was seen carrying a five-gallon container into the sanctuary and then running away after the fire started.
Later on, Sechriest pleaded guilty and said he targeted the synagogue because of his hatred for Jews.
Before starting the fire, federal investigators claimed that Sechriest, who was a student at Texas State University and a member of the Texas State Guard, had written racist and anti-Semitic journal entries.
“Scout a target” was written in the journal on the day of the attack followed by “I set a synagogue on fire,” a few days later.
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division stated that “this hate-filled act of violence against a house of worship was an attempt to sow fear in the Jewish community and was intended to intimidate its congregants.”
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