Chinese citizen sentenced to over 8 years in prison for Alabama church fire
A Chinese woman who attempted to burn down a church in Alabama and who illegally possessed a firearm has been sentenced to more than eight years in federal prison.
A federal judge sentenced Xiaoqin Yan, 30, to 102 months in prison without the possibility of parole last Friday, according to a press release on Monday from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Alabama.
Yan entered First Baptist Church of Montgomery in September 2021, and set multiple fires within the property, causing considerable damages before firefighters were able to extinguish them.
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The investigation involved the Montgomery Fire/Rescue Bureau of Investigations, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the U.S. Marshals Service Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, along with assistance from the Montgomery Police Department.
FBC Montgomery Pastor Mark Bethea told ATF agents at the time that he had interacted with Yan before the day of the arson, ultimately he “escorted the female from the premises of the church.”
Later, he learned that the church's security personnel reported that she had been "acting suspiciously" while on the church property, leading them to write down her license plate number.
Yan was arrested in October 2021, with authorities discovering materials that included gas containers, lighters and starter logs, as well as a handgun that she illegally possessed.
When she was arrested and also during the time in which she committed the arson, Yan was in the United States illegally, as she had an expired non-immigrant visa.
In June of last year, a federal jury in Montgomery convicted Yan of arson and possession of a firearm by an illegal alien, with her facing the possibility of up to 20 years in prison.
“I’ve heard nothing that has helped me understand why an individual would want to destroy a place that has been a carrier of such great light and hope to our city,” said Bethea in a statement, as reported by Montgomery Advertiser.
“While I don’t fully understand it, I do recognize that Scripture clearly reminds us that what man meant for evil, God has used for good.”
In recent years, attacks on church buildings in the United States have been on the rise, according to statistics compiled by the conservative Christian advocacy group the Family Research Council.
FRC reported in February that there were 436 incidents against churches in 2023, which was over twice the amount in 2022 and eight times the number of attacks identified in 2018.
