Steven James Perkinson, 21, of Plainfield, Ind., was sentenced to 10 months in federal prison on Tuesday for vandalizing a local Baptist church, followed by three years of supervised release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perkinson had pleaded guilty to intentionally damaging religious property and making false statements to federal investigators,\u00a0according\u00a0to the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Southern District of Indiana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Nov. 18, 2024, Perkinson defaced a sign outside Maple Grove Baptist Church, spray-painting symbols including a pitchfork and the number \u201c666,\u201d and crossing out the sign\u2019s Christian cross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cTargeting any house of worship is an attack on the fundamental freedoms that define our nation,\u201d the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana stated.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Authorities said he first came to the FBI\u2019s attention in 2023 after posting on Instagram, \u201cNow I just sit alone in my room for hours a day. \u2026 Schools are meant for shooting up, not learning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Investigators also found online searches for the \u201caddress of the largest Jewish church in America,\u201d messages claiming access to firearms and encouraging mass violence, photos of Perkinson posing with recently deceased animals and evidence of setting fire to a dumpster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When first questioned, Perkinson denied involvement. After agents examined his cell phone, he admitted to participating in \u201cvarious Satanic groups\u201d and targeting the church sign \u201cbecause it belonged to a Christian church.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTargeting any house of worship because of its faith is an attack on the fundamental freedoms that define our nation,\u201d stated Tom Wheeler, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Indiana. \u201cThis defendant\u2019s conduct, paired with his disturbing online activity, posed a real threat to those liberties.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis sentence makes clear that hate\u2011fueled vandalism and threats of violence will be met with swift and serious federal consequences,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Steven James Perkinson, 21, of Plainfield, Ind., was sentenced to 10 months in federal prison on Tuesday for vandalizing a local Baptist church, followed by three years of supervised release. Perkinson had pleaded guilty to intentionally damaging religious property and making false statements to federal investigators,\u00a0according\u00a0to the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Southern District of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10696,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[117,817,179],"coauthors":[381],"class_list":{"0":"post-10694","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-faith","8":"tag-church","9":"tag-justice","10":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10694"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10697,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10694\/revisions\/10697"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10694"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=10694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}