UPDATE

ST. LANDRY PARISH, LA – Gov. John Bel Edwards issued a statement on the guilty plea in the case of the African-American church fires in St. Landry Parish. On Monday, 22-year-old Holden Matthews pleaded guilty to six state charges and six federal charges, including six total hate crime charges, for setting three historic African-American churches on fire in St. Landry Parish last spring. 

Gov. Edwards said: 

“These unthinkable acts deprived three church communities of not only their places of worship, but their sense of security. Holden Matthews’ actions came from a place of hate and intolerance and the charges he has pled guilty to speak to the serious and sickening nature of his crimes. 

I have often said that hate is not a Louisiana value. I have visited and prayed with the congregations of St. Mary Baptist Church, Greater Union Baptist Church and Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in the aftermath of these fires and saw unshakable faith and strength in the midst of tragedy and beautiful love and forgiveness spring forth from pain. I ask that the people of our state continue to pray for and support these three churches as they rebuild and continue their missions.

I also thank the hundreds of members of law enforcement, including the State Fire Marshal’s office, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Department of Justice, Louisiana State Police, the St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Office, the St. Landry District Attorney’s office and others who assisted in this case.”

Matthews will be sentenced on May 22, 2020.

He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison, and a statutory maximum sentence of 70 years in prison.