Man enters guilty plea to federal charges in black church burnings

LAFAYETTE, La. – The man who was arrested in a series of fires set at African American churches in Louisiana last spring pleaded guilty Monday to four federal criminal counts. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release that Holden Matthews, 21 at the time of his arrest last year, pleaded guilty to three counts of intentional damage to religious property, a federal hate crime carrying a possible 20-year sentence per count. He also pleaded to one count of using fire to commit a felony, a possible 10-year sentence.