Church Bombers sentenced
DERIDDER—Judge Martha Ann O’Neal of the 36th Judicial District Court on Friday sentenced to jail four men to jail on Friday who were involved with placing bombs at two churches last July.
Nathan A. Lee, Anthony W. Martin and Timothy A. Free entered plea bargains with the State through Assistant District Attorney (ADA) Richard Blankenship.
The three men pleaded guilty to manufacture and possession of a bomb, simple burglary of a religious building and simple arson of a religious building.
The ADA dismissed an original theft charge.
The men were sentenced to seven years for each charge in the Department of Corrections (DOC) with five years on each count suspended. They will receive credit for time already served. Two years for each charge are to be served concurrently without the benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence.
The men will also be placed on five years supervised probation and have been fined $2,500 plus the cost of court.
Sidney D. Fletcher pleaded guilty to manufacture and possession of a bomb. The charges of simple burglary of a religious building, simple arson of a religious building and theft were dismissed by the ADA.
He will have to serve five years in the DOC with four years suspended and receiving credit for time served. He will also be placed on five years supervised probation and has been fined $1,500 plus the cost of court.
According to Martin’s statement as given to police, he was on a string of criminal activity.
He told police he entered a fireworks stand on US Hwy 171 South on Monday night and stole some fireworks.
On Tuesday night, he went to a Frito Lay distribution warehouse located on La. Highway 3226 in Vernon Parish and broke into two trucks; he removed cash from one truck and a travel coffee mug from another. The coffee mug was later used to manufacture one of the bombs.
Wednesday night, the men vandalized the Cypress Creek Baptist Church in Vernon Parish after returning from a bridge located on the same road where they had just finished testing a flashlight bomb to determine its severity of the blast.
Martin said in his statement, “We just wanted to pull a prank.”
After the vandalism, the group went to Grace Church to plant and detonate the incendiary device.
The device knocked out a pane of glass on a double-paned window. The travel mug was left at the scene after detonation.
The men then went to Three Pine Apostolic Church, they wanted to detonate another bomb improvised from a metal flashlight.
While planting the bomb the two men who entered the church decided to steal some music equipment.
A woman caught the men in the act and, while fleeing, a man was left behind. All the men were apprehended that night and incarcerated.
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