Alabama CHURCH Burners arrested

[Tigermike 3,050]

I just heard on the radio that two students at Birmingham Southern College have been arrested for the church fires. They are also looking for a UAB student. All three attended Hoover High School.

I cannot provide a link, I heard it on the radio. Link to follow shortly.

[Guest Tigrinum Major]

Breaking News

Third suspect is also in custody, but no details yet.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Two young men have been arrested and a third person is being sought in the arsons that destroyed or damaged at least nine rural churches in Alabama last month, federal law enforcement sources said Wednesday.

The two were arrested Tuesday night, NBC’s Pete Williams reported.

WVTM-TV of Birmingham, citing the state fire marshal’s office, said the two are students at Birmingham Southern College and were arrested at a college dorm.

The two suspects, identified as Ben Moseley and Russell DuBusk, were to appear in court in Birmingham later Wednesday morning.

Police are also searching for a third person, reportedly a student at the University of Alabama in Birmingham.

He was identified as Matthew Lee Cloyd, and owns a vehicle that matches the description of a vehicle that witnesses had placed at the scene of several of the fires, WVTM reported.

Investigators analyzed tire tracks and traced the purchase of the tires to Cloyd.

[Jenny AU-92 0]

Birmingham Southern is a Methodist based college. Baptist churches were burned. Not making a joke - wonder if that had anything to do with their decision to burn Baptist churches? That and the fact that they are sick, punkass pieces of crap that don't deserve the opportunities they most likely have been given in life. I got a scholly offer to BSC and that is an expensive school. UAB ain't exactly a community college, and all three were from Hoover. I hope they get locked up for a good long while.

And then, of course, ONE of their church fires is going to be considered a hate crime since the church was black and they are white. Why just the one - they obviously made no preference for burning black churches, since the majority of them were white congregations. I will bet a halfway decent defense attorney will make that point and successfully get the hate crime thing tossed out. They target was the church, not the color of the congregation.

If you MUST find a way to make it a hate crime, call it a hate crime against Christians... oh, wait sorry, you can abuse Christians without recrimination - I forgot that page from the liberal free speech playbook...

Thank goodness they didn't burn a mosque...

[Captain Liger 0]

Spoiled little rich kids trying to be cute. May they be buried underneath the jail.

[BamaGrad03 0]

How do you burn churches down as a 'joke'?

What was the joke?

[RadioWryn 0]

Should be noted here that the BSC President offered financial aid, support to the churches to rebuild.. he said they'd fund the rebuilding effort.

Very classy move by a classy guy at a classy school.

[WarTim 3,457]

From what I have heard, and I am sure that I have missed some facts along the way, this is simply a case of stupidity and ignorance. As life has proven to me, the dumbest animal on the face of the earth is a college male. Add alcohol to the mix and you have a super human IDIOT.

I will pray for redemption and forgiveness for these young men. Their lives are forever changed.

[Jenny AU-92 0]

Their lives are forever RUINED. I feel nothing for them, but am horrified for their parents. They must be devastated. Their children are going from prestigious schools to federal prison for most of their adult life - didn't I hear that the minimum sentence is 5 years for EACH church? That's 45 years. They are 20-ish now - that means they will be in their 60's when they get out again. No wives, children, education, career, vacations, nothing. Their lives are effectively over. What a change in fortune. They are old enough to know better... so my sympathies are with the parents only.

[Tigermike 3,050]

They are old enough to know better... so my sympathies are with the parents only.

224149[/snapback]

I agree with Jenny 100% on that point! (and others sometimes)

If these are Federal charges against them, would Esquire or Legaleagle (or any other attorney) shed some light on the subject? Am I correct in thinking that with Federal convictions they will serve the entire length of their sentences? There will be no parole?

[Jenny AU-92 0]

If these are Federal charges against them, would Esquire or Legaleagle (or any other attorney)  shed some light on the subject?  Am I correct in thinking that with Federal convictions they will serve the entire length of their sentences?  There will be no parole?

224157[/snapback]

The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 abolished parole for crimes committed after 11-1-87 and in 1989 the SCOTUS upheld it as constitutional.

Defendants serve their court-imposed sentences, minus approximately 15 percent for good behavior, if applicable. Such sentence reductions may not exceed 54 days per year. Other types of early release are prohibited.

Link

Who needs an attorney... no charge, either, Mike.

Legal guys, am I correct? Is it still like this? Will the "good behavior" time be applied to these guys?

Here's a guy who, in 2000, got 42+ years for basically the same crime, altho he burned the churches because he was a devil worshiper. One of the churches he burned was in Eastaboga, AL...

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2000

INDIANA MAN SENTENCED TO OVER 42 YEARS FOR SETTING 26 CHURCHES ABLAZE

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Jay Scott Ballinger, 38, of Yorktown, Indiana, was sentenced to 42 years, 7 months imprisonment by U.S. District Judge Sarah E. Barker in Indianapolis today following his guilty pleas on July 11, 2000, to one count of conspiracy to commit arson and church arson, six counts of arson of a building in interstate commerce, twenty counts of church arson, and two counts of using fire to commit a federal felony announced Timothy M. Morrison, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, Bill Lann Lee, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, and James E. Johnson, Treasury Under Secretary for Enforcement. This case was the result of a nationwide investigation conducted by the National Church Arson Task Force, including investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, investigators from the Indiana State Fire Marshal's Office, and numerous state and local fire investigators around the United States.

[snip]

"The rampage that resulted from the destructive acts of this one individual has ended," said Bill Lann Lee, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, and Co-Chair of the NCATF. "I hope that this sentence will help bring closure to those whose lives were harmed by these hateful acts, and sends a strong message that these crimes will not be tolerated. The federal government remains steadfast in our cooperative efforts to continue to prosecute each and every one of these incidents to the fullest extent of the law."

"We welcome today's sentence, which closes the case on the largest number of fires charged to a single defendant since President Clinton formed the National Church Arson Task Force in 1996," said James E. Johnson, Treasury Under Secretary for Enforcement. "While it cannot turn back the clock, it brings some measure of justice to the communities that were impacted by this serial arsonist, and demonstrates the impact of our collaborative efforts, which have resulted in the investigation of more than 980 arsons and the arrests of 450 defendants."

According to Assistant United States Attorney Susan Heckard Dowd, who prosecuted the case for the government, Judge Barker also imposed three years supervised release following BALLINGER's release from imprisonment. Ballinger was also ordered to make restitution in the amount of $3,554,388.56 to the victim churches.

Other documents previously filed in the District Court set forth facts of the arson fires set by Ballinger. Ballinger grew up in the Yorktown, Indiana area. Throughout his adult life, Ballinger traveled extensively throughout the United States, studying and practicing his religious beliefs as a Luciferian. Ballinger frequently expressed his hostility toward organized Christianity, signed individuals he met to contracts with the devil, and termed himself a Missionary of Lucifer and a Saint of Hades. In late 1993, Ballinger met an 18-year-old woman named Angela Wood with whom he soon entered into a romantic relationship. Ballinger and Wood traveled the country together, primarily living in motels on a short term basis. Wood obtained short-term employment as a nightclub dancer at various locations around the United States, in order to support them and pay their living expenses. Wood also assisted Ballinger in setting many of the church fires, primarily acting as a lookout so no one would see Ballinger set the fires, but also carrying gas cans and other supplies for Ballinger while he set the fires.

Ballinger's setting of church fires followed a distinct pattern. Most of the fires were set late at night or early in the morning. Most of the fires were set at isolated rural churches. On most occasions, Ballinger broke a window at the side or back of the church, poured a flammable mixture (usually gasoline) into the church, set the flammable mixture on fire with a lighter, then left the area.

[snip]

Ballinger still faces federal charges in the Northern District of Georgia and the Middle District of Georgia for setting five church fires in Georgia in December 1998 and January 1999, including one in which a firefighter was killed while fighting the fire. Ballinger is currently being held in the Marion County Jail, and will be transported to Georgia to face the charges.

In a related case, Donald Puckett, of Lebanon, Indiana, pled guilty and was sentenced in September, 1999, to an arson charge for assisting Ballinger and Wood in setting the Concord Church of Christ fire in January 1999. Puckett is currently serving a 27-month sentence of imprisonment for his conviction, and is cooperating with the government.

Angela Wood pled guilty in November 1999 to one count of conspiracy to commit arson and church arson, one count of arson of a building in interstate commerce, four counts of church arson, and one count of use of fire to commit a federal felony. Wood is cooperating with the government in the cases against Ballinger and will be sentenced by Judge Barker tomorrow, November 15, 2000.

###

Link

[otterinbham 0]

I feel nothing for them, but am horrified for their parents. 

224149[/snapback]

I feel bad for the parents up to a point. However, bad parenting has a heck of lot to do with this. In what universe would a well-raised child ever say, "Hey, yeah, let's burn down eight churches. That sounds fun!"

You can always say it happens in the best of families. However, if you dig enough into these guys' backgrounds, I bet you will find permissiveness and an escalating pattern of these kinds of outrages. I am pretty certain that all these kids had a track record of getting into trouble. Only now, they're all in a bind that Mommy and Daddy can't buy their way out of. My kids go to a private school with a lot of children from wealthy families (We're not among them, sadly), and you can see how many of these kids were raised to have contempt for everybody but themselves.

In short, raise your children right from the beginning. It doesn't guarantee they won't get into trouble, but it surely decreases the odds.

[AUChizad 0]

I didn't know these guys, but I know people who know them.

One of my friend's long-time girlfriend left him for one of these pscyhos. Good move on her part.

I know another girl from an entirely different group of friends who used to date the other guy. They all say they were "Real sweet" guys that they would never in a million years expect this from.

I don't see how that is possible. There is no way that an otherwise good person would think it's a good idea to burn down eight churches on eight seperate occasions. My best guess is the fact that they were rich kid fraternity pretty boys, their psychosis went unnoticed. Reminds me of American Psycho.