A white man charged with torching three historically African-American churches in a 10-day span to raise his profile in the 'Black Metal' music community pleaded guilty to federal hate crime charges, officials say.
Pledged donations to rebuild Notre Dame has inspired others to help rebuild three burned Louisiana churches.in a 10-day span to raise his profile in the"Black Metal" music community pleaded guilty on Monday to federal hate crime charges, officials said.
Holden Matthews, 21, of Opelousas, La., is pictured in a photo released by the Louisiana State Fire Marshal on April 11, 2019. He said Matthews admitted to setting the fires because of the"religious character of these buildings" and in an effort to raise his profile as a"Black Metal" musician, a music genre with roots in the Norwegian heavy metal scene that reportedly was the inspiration of several church burnings in that country in the early 1990s.
Matthews faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison, and a statutory maximum sentence of 70 years in prison, officials said. He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 22. The burnt ruins of the Greater Union Baptist Church, one of three that recently burned down in St. Landry Parish, are seen in Opelousas, La., Wednesday, April 10, 2019.At the time of his arrest, officials described Matthews as the son of a St. Landry Parrish sheriff's deputy and that he had ties to"black metal."
The fires drew national attention and Vice President Mike Pence traveled to St. Landry Parrish to condemn the acts and voice support for the congregations displaced by the blazes.
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