A 21-year-old former Bible college student pleaded guilty yesterday to dousing the interior of a Plymouth church with gasoline and setting it on fire in 2005, the US attorney's office announced.
Caleb Uriah Lussier of Plymouth will face up to 13 years in federal prison under an agreement reached by Lussier's lawyer and federal prosecutors. Sentencing has been scheduled for April 2.
Lussier had been enrolled at the World of Life Bible Institute in Chester, N.Y. in 2005, but was home visiting family in December 2005 when he set the fire. Prosecutors said that about 2 a.m. on Dec. 28, he poured gasoline on the aisles of the New Testament Church in Plymouth and moved the church bibles and flags out of the building before setting it on fire.
An alert Plymouth police officer noticed light flashing inside the church and ran in to extinguish the fire, which caused $100,000 in damage.
Prosecutors said Lussier tucked a note in the stack of Bibles, signing it "Shamgar," a biblical reference to a warrior, and wrote, "I, Shamgar have brought this upon you as a lesson."
Lussier had also sent a letter to the church earlier in the month, criticizing the churches for doing "evil in His eyes."
Authorities in Massachusetts linked Lussier to the fire last year after he confessed to setting a similar fire in 2006 at Christ Episcopal Church in Warren N.Y., not far from the Bible college he attended. He pleaded guilty last year to setting that fire, prosecutors said.
Federal defender Timothy G. Watkins, who represented Lussier, said investigators were tipped off after Lussier began hanging around another church after the Christ Episcopal Church fire and church members called police.
Investigators found two letters on his computer that matched the Shamgar letters sent to the New York and Plymouth churches.
"Caleb was going through an extremely difficult and tumultuous period emotionally during these two fires," Watkins said. "He's since recognized the magnitude and horror of what he did . . . and is prepared to pay a substantial price."
Watkins said Lussier will probably serve sentences for both fires at the same time at a federal prison where he will receive psychological treatment.
Megan Woolhouse can be reached at mwoolhouse@globe.com.
