The man who vandalized and set fire to a Mormon church in south Mississippi will spend 30 years in prison.
Stefan Day Rowold was handed the three-decade sentence on Tuesday after a jury found him guilty of six counts of federal arson and civil rights charges following a trial this past September. Back in July 2024, Rowold set fire to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Wiggins.
The defendant told law enforcement that he broke into the church and wrote disparaging messages on the walls before setting the facility ablaze, using paintings, hymnals, and other paper-related objects to stoke the flames. After failing to burn the building down on the first attempt, he returned to finish what he had started. His motivation, according to court records, stemmed from disagreeing with the Mormon church’s platform.
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“Today’s sentence reflects the seriousness of the defendant’s reprehensible conduct,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said. “Anyone who attacks a house of worship in America will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
The Wiggins house of worship was unable to hold services in the building for several months following the fires. The church, at Rowold’s sentencing, was given more than $176,000 in restitution.