A Missouri man was sentenced yesterday to 111 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp of the Eastern District of Missouri for burning down a house of worship in Cape Girardeau in 2021. He was also ordered to pay $6,968,223.36 in restitution for the damages caused to the church.
Christopher Scott Pritchard, 49, pleaded guilty on December 19, 2024, in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri to one count of arson and one count of violating the Church Arson Prevention Act. Pritchard admitted to setting fire to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) building in Cape Girardeau on the evening of April 28, 2021.
Pritchard was seen watching the fire and was arrested about 1.5 miles away by the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff’s Office. He smelled of smoke and carried a backpack containing a laptop, a projector, speakers, and 21 apples he had stolen from the church. Deputies said Pritchard had a verbal altercation with the church Bishop days before the fire and had threatened to assault the Bishop and burn down the church.
The fire destroyed the building and disrupted the congregants’ free exercise of their religious beliefs. No injuries were reported.
“There is no place in America for criminal acts against houses of worship,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The Civil Rights Division thanks its law enforcement partners for prosecuting this matter.”
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon and U.S. Attorney Sayler A. Fleming for the Eastern District of Missouri made the announcement.
The FBI St. Louis Field Office, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Cape Girardeau County Sheriff’s Office, and Missouri State Fire Marshal’s Office investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Hahn prosecuted the case with support from the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section.
