A Texas man pleaded guilty for setting fire to the Beth Israel synagogue in Austin after investigators found his journal, where he wrote about the crime

• A Texas man pleaded guilty to a hate crime for setting fire to a synagogue in Austin in 2021.

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• Franklin Sechriest, 20, admitted in his magazine that he set the area of worship ablaze.

• With hundreds in damages, the congregation’s contributors try to “move forward,” KUT 90.5 reported.

A Texas man has pleaded guilty to fees of arson and hate crimes, admitting to setting fire to a Jewish synagogue in Austin in 2021. His guilty plea got here right through the primary Jewish vacation of Passover.

Franklin Sechriest, a 20-year-old from San Marcos, admitted to setting fire to the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue on Oct. 31, 2021, in accordance to a Justice Department press release.

He first confessed in a magazine access found out by means of police and used to be stuck on surveillance video coming into the synagogue with rest room paper and a 5-gallon container simply prior to the development went up in flames.

“I set a synagogue on fire,” Sechriest wrote in his magazine, in accordance to the Justice Department.

Investigators found that Sechriest drove to the car parking zone outdoor the synagogue’s sanctuary in the days main up to the arson in order to “scout out a target,” the Justice Department stated.

“Sechriest admitted that he targeted the synagogue because of his hatred of Jews, and his journals were replete with virulent antisemitic statements and views,” the Justice Department stated. “Sechriest also possessed several decals and stickers expressing antisemitic messages.”

Sechriest is due for sentencing on June 23 and faces a most of two decades in jail and a high quality of $250,000.

Repairs to the church value masses of hundreds, and the group continues to be running to heal, in accordance to the native KUT 90.5 news radio station.

“No one here is cheering that this happened and that there is a guilty plea,” Congregation member Lori Adelman informed the outlet. “We’re just trying to figure out how we … move forward and stay strong and become stronger.”

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