A 23-year-old man from Louisiana, in the United States, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for setting fire to three churches belonging to the African-American community, in what prosecutors claim was an attempt to gain notoriety as a black metal musician.
The man, Holden James Matthews, set fire to churches within a 10-day period between March and April 2019. In addition to his prison sentence, the conviction requires him to pay a debt of US$2.7 million (over R$15 million) to the communities affected by the crimes.
Matthews pleaded guilty to the charges in February of this year during a hearing before a judge. According to the local newspaper The Acadiana Advocate , he used the hearing to address church representatives and apologize: "If I could go back and change what I did, I would," he reportedly said.
“These churches survived for nearly 150 years, but they did not survive the defendant’s twisted act of hatred,” said Assistant Attorney General Eric S. Dreidband . Matthews also pleaded guilty to six other charges, all related to the fires. Sentencing is pending at the time of this report.
Daily Beast news site reported at the time of the trial that Matthews had commented on social media posts about Vikernes, a known neo-Nazi who was arrested in 1994.
Actions of this kind contribute to the prejudice that metal, and especially black metal, suffers. Wikimetal repudiates any violent and disrespectful action against all beliefs and races.
