45 Years For Church Fire Suspects?
3 College Students Could Face Serious Jail Time For 'Joke'
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Play CBS Video Video 3 Arrested In Church Arsons Carson Carroll, deputy assistant director for ATF, who oversaw the investigation into the Alabama church arsons, speaks with Julie Chen about how they tracked down the suspects.
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Video Ala. Church Fires 'A Joke' In Alabama, three college students face charges in a series of church fires, which one suspect says started out as a joke. Jim Acosta reports from Birmingham.
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Video Arrests In Church Arson Case Agents investigating the string of Alabama church fires say they have cracked the case, arresting three college students and revealing the alleged motive behind it all. Jim Acosta reports.
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The three men arrested in the Alabama church arsons: Benjamin Nathan Moseley, left, Matthew Lee Cloyd, center, and Russell Lee DeBusk Jr. (AP/Shelby County Sheriffs Office)
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One of the suspects arrives at the courthouse. (WBRC)
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A firefighter from the West Greene Fire Department sprays water on the smoldering remains of the Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church near Boligee, Ala., in Greene County, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2006. (AP)
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An agent from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms investigates the remains of the Morning Star Baptist church Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2006, near Boligee, Ala., after a fire destroyed the structure earlier that morning. (AP)
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The three were jailed on federal charges of conspiracy and setting fire to a single church — Ashby Baptist. If convicted, each count carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison. Additional charges are possible, authorities said.
CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen expects the men to receive serious sentences if they're ultimately convicted.
"I think prosecutors and the judge are going to see the case as a perfect vehicle to send a message that this sort of conduct, whatever the motives, just won’t be tolerated," says Cohen. "And I think that push is going to be more powerful than any argument that they get a lot of leniency because of their age or anything else."
Cohen says the only way the suspects get a break is if they plead guilty, "and even then I’m not sure that prosecutors will be eager to accept anything less than some prison time as a sentence."Read the criminal complaint (.pdf).
Two of the suspects were identified as Benjamin Nathan Moseley and Russell Lee DeBusk Jr., both 19-year-old students at Birmingham-Southern College. Matthew Lee Cloyd, a 20-year-old junior at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, also was arrested.
Acquaintances said DeBusk and Moseley were both amateur actors who were known as pranksters and dreamed of becoming stars. They performed in campus plays and appeared in a documentary film.
The arson attacks apparently began when the three got into Cloyd's sport utility vehicle for a night of deer shooting in Bibb County on Feb. 2, according to Walker Johnson, a federal agent who investigated the fires.
Moseley told agents that the three set fire to five Baptist churches in the early morning hours of Feb. 3. A witness quoted Cloyd as saying Moseley did it "as a joke and it got out of hand."
Moseley also told agents the four fires in west Alabama were set four days later "as a diversion to throw investigators off," an attempt that "obviously did not work," the court papers said.
A judge ordered the three held until a hearing Friday.
©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
