A man who pleaded guilty to federal hate crimes charges for setting fire to a Somali restaurant in Grand Forks, North Dakota was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years in prison.
Matthew Gust, 26, threw an explosive device made from a beer bottle through the window of the Juba Coffee House in December as an act of retaliation against the town’s Somali community, his lawyer Ted Sandberg explained in a sentencing hearing, according to the Associated Press.
Sandberg argued that Gust was motivated by a past experience being held up at gun point by robbers who he believed were Somali while he was working at a sandwich shop, according to the AP. Sandberg claimed Gust was inspired to act when he learned that Nazi symbols and the words “go home” had been painted on the Juba Coffee House’s exterior (no individual has been charged for that vandalism, and Gust has denied involvement in it).
“After a night of drinking, and a day of ingesting meth, Gust created the Molotov cocktail and decided he would settle the score with the robbers by damaging their national associates’ gathering place,” Sandberg told the judge, according to the AP. “He would burn the Juba Cafe.”
Prosecutors estimated that the fire caused about $250,000 in damages to the café and to neighboring businesses, the AP reported.
