A New Jersey man has been sentenced to six months in jail for breaking into a Rutgers University Islamic center on the Muslim holiday of Eid-al-Fitr and vandalizing it.

Jacob Beacher, of North Plainfield, will also have to serve a year of supervised release once he gets out under the terms of the sentence he received Tuesday. He pleaded guilty in October to the federal hate crime of damaging religious property.

Rutgers Islamic center vandalized in 2024

Beacher, who officials have said is unaffiliated with Rutgers, initially was charged in April 2024 with single counts of intentional or attempted obstruction of religious practice and making false statements to federal authorities. The charges stemmed from a break-in at the Center for Islamic Life at Rutgers University in New Brunswick.

Beacher damaged property at the site, including several religious artifacts and numerous items that contained holy language from the Quran, Islam's sacred scripture, prosecutors have said. He also stole a Palestinian flag and a charity box belonging to the center, authorities said. 

The Islamic center was unoccupied when the break-in occurred on April 10, 2024 at around 2:40 a.m., according to prosecutors. The overall damage was estimated at $40,000.

The next day, some Muslim students told CBS News New York they felt unsafe at Rutgers. 

While speaking with the FBI two days after the break-in, Beacher said he was the person seen near the center in surveillance video, but he denied breaking into the site. The incident came a few weeks after the state attorney general's office had reported a recent spike in bias incidents in New Jersey.