Guilty plea to federal charges in black church burnings (Louisiana)

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Do Something Dumb, Post it Online.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release that Holden Matthews pleaded guilty to three counts of intentional damage to religious property, a federal hate crime. He also pleaded to one count of using fire to commit a felony. He entered the pleas in federal court in Lafayette. Sentencing on the federal charges is set for May 22.

He later pleaded guilty in state court in St. Landry Parish to six related state charges and sentencing was set for May 26, Assistant District Attorney Don Richard told The Associated Press.

Investigators said Matthews had shown interest in “black metal,” an extreme sub-genre of heavy metal music.

“Matthews admitted to setting the fires because of the religious character of these buildings, in an effort to raise his profile as a Black Metal’ musician by copying similar crimes committed in Norway in the 1990s,” the U.S. Attorney’s statement said.

His self-promotion included taking pictures and videos of two of the burning churches and posting them to Facebook, the release said.