NewsChannel 5.com - Nashville, Tennessee - 1 of 3 defendants sentenced in mosque firebombing

1 of 3 defendants sentenced in mosque firebombing

Associated Press - November 23, 2009 6:05 PM ET

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A man charged with firebombing a mosque in Columbia, Tenn., has been sentenced to 14 years in federal prison.

Senior U.S. District Court Judge Robert L. Echols sentenced 23-year-old Michael Corey Golden of Columbia on Monday. Golden and two other men pleaded guilty earlier to burning the Islamic Center of Columbia last year. The city is about 40 miles south of Nashville.

Court documents showed the men painted swastikas and racial slogans on the center, then threw two homemade Molotov cocktails into it.

Prosecutors said fellow defendants Eric Ian Baker and Jonathan Edward Stone will be sentenced in December.

The mosque has reopened elsewhere. James M. Cavanaugh of the ATF in Nashville said all Muslims who saw photos of the swastikas were victimized.

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