By Associated Press
Livingston, AL – Two former Birmingham college students already sentenced to ten years behind bars for setting fire to several rural Alabama churches avoided additional prison time Wednesday after pleading guilty in a Sumter County courtroom to three of the church arsons.
21-year-old Matthew Cloyd and 20-year-old Benjamin Moseley were sentenced to two years in prison for setting fire to two churches in Sumter County and one in Greene County.
Cloyd and Moseley last month were sentenced to eight years in federal prison and two in state prison for the string of church arsons in February 2006. The sentences imposed will run concurrently with the two years given earlier on state charges.
Cloyd and Moseley were not ordered to pay any restitution because they have already been ordered to repay more than three (m) million dollars for the churches' losses. Neither made any statement in court, other than yes or no responses to the judge.
They still face state charges for a church fire in Pickens County.
A third former Birmingham college student, 20-year-old Russell DeBusk Junior was sentenced last month to seven years in federal prison and two in state prison for taking part in the Bibb County church arsons. He was not involved in the church fires in Sumter, Greene and Pickens counties.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)