Suspect says Alabama church fires were a joke
Peggy Gargis
Reuters
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Tuscaloosa, Alabama (US):
Authorities arrested three college students on Wednesday on charges of setting fires that damaged or destroyed nine Baptist churches in Alabama, in what one suspect allegedly called a joke that went too far.
Prosecutors identified the suspects as Ben Moseley and Russell Debusk, 19-year-old students at Birmingham-Southern College, and Matthew Lee Cloyd, 20, who transferred last year from Birmingham-Southern to the University of Alabama at Birmingham.They were charged with conspiracy and committing malicious destruction by fire.
The men could face up to five years in prison for each of the nine fires.In court documents, a federal agent quoted Moseley as saying the trio had gone to Bibb County, Alabama, to shoot deer on February 2 and had set fire to five rural churches early the next morning.A witness quoted Cloyd as saying that was done "as a joke, and it got out of hand."
Mar 08, 2006
Peggy Gargis
Reuters
______
Tuscaloosa, Alabama (US):
Authorities arrested three college students on Wednesday on charges of setting fires that damaged or destroyed nine Baptist churches in Alabama, in what one suspect allegedly called a joke that went too far.
Prosecutors identified the suspects as Ben Moseley and Russell Debusk, 19-year-old students at Birmingham-Southern College, and Matthew Lee Cloyd, 20, who transferred last year from Birmingham-Southern to the University of Alabama at Birmingham.They were charged with conspiracy and committing malicious destruction by fire.
The men could face up to five years in prison for each of the nine fires.In court documents, a federal agent quoted Moseley as saying the trio had gone to Bibb County, Alabama, to shoot deer on February 2 and had set fire to five rural churches early the next morning.A witness quoted Cloyd as saying that was done "as a joke, and it got out of hand."
Mar 08, 2006
