College Students Face Arson Charges in Alabama Church Fires

Three college students have been arrested a little more than a month after the first of a string of nine church arsons in Alabama. Benjamin N. Moseley, 19, of Birmingham; Russell L. DeBusk, 19, of Hoover; and Matthew L. Cloyd, 20, of Indian Springs were arrested on March 8 by Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) agents and local police.

The men are facing charges of conspiracy to commit arson and arson, and could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison for arson and up to 5 years for conspiracy.

Harming a house of worship is a federal crime. According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution , the first time the students set a church afire, it was a prank. Subsequent fires were set to cover up the first.

Moseley and DeBusk are theater students at Birmingham-Southern University. Cloyd is a former student at Birmingham-Southern who had transferred to the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Cloyd owns a green Toyota sport utility vehicle. Key pieces of evidence were tire tracks near the burned churches. Two young white men had been seen near the fires in a green SUV.

Hundreds of ATF agents worked to solve the case, using accelerant-detecting dogs to scour the arson sites. No injuries or deaths resulted from the fires, but worried church members tried to guard their churches prior to the arrests of the students. The fires occurred in rural southwestern Alabama, where churches are at the heart of community life.

The first five fires were set at the Rehobeth, Ashby, Old Union, Pleasant Sabine and Antioch Churches, all in Bibb County, Alabama. Four more arsons happened on February 7 at the Morningstar Baptist Church in Boligee, the Galilee Missionary Baptist Church in Panola, the Spring Valley Baptist Church in Gainesville and the Dancy First Baptist Church in Aliceville.

Previous statements by the ATF had suggested the arsonists were targeting religion, but that does not appear to be the case. Neither religion nor race seems to have motivated the arsonists. A trial date has not yet been set for the arsonists.