Texas man sentenced for hate crime after trying to burn down synagogue

The man said he targeted the synagogue because of 'hatred of Jews.'

A Texas man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for a hate crime and arson after he set a local synagogue on fire.
Darrin Klimek/Getty Images

MYSA
By Priscilla Aguirre
November 30, 2023

A Texas man was sentenced to 10 years in prison for a hate crime and arson after he tried to burn down a synagogue in Austin in 2021, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday, November 29. The man said he targeted the synagogue because of "hatred of Jews."

Franklin Sechriest, a 19-year-old from San Marcos, set fire to the Congregation Beth Israel Synagogue in Austin on October 31, 2021, according to the release. He pleaded guilty to the hate crime and arson charges on April 7, 2023.

Investigators said they recovered journals from Sechriest that were replete with antisemitic statements and views. He also had several decals and stickers expressing antisemitic messages, the release noted. Three days before the arson, Sechriest drove to the synagogue's parking lot outside its sanctuary to "scout out a target," officials said.

On the night of the arson, Sechriest was seen on surveillance video carrying a 5-gallon container and toilet paper toward the synagogue's sanctuary. Surveillance and security videos also showed the glow of the fire from the direction of the sanctuary and saw Sechriest jogging away from it and toward his car.

Austin Fire Department extinguished the fire after receiving a call from a concerned citizen, the release stated. In Sechriest's journal, in an entry dated October 31, 2021, he wrote "I set a synagogue on fire."

Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general of the justice department's civil rights division, called the incident a "hate-filled act of violence against a house of worship." Clarke said, "Attacks targeting Jewish people and arsons aimed at desecrating synagogues have no place in our society today."

Sechriest was sentenced to 10 years in prison and three years in supervised release. He's ordered to pay $470,000 in restitution.