Holden Matthews, who pleaded guilty to setting three historically Black St. Landry Parish churches on fire, will spend more than 23 years in federal prison, reports Ashley White of the Lafayette Daily Advertiser. 

Matthews will serve 282 months after he was sentenced Monday by Federal District Judge Robert Summerhays. The judge sentenced him to 25 years but gave him 18 months credit for the time he has already spent in jail. While in prison, Summerhays recommends Matthews receive substance abuse treatment and mental health counseling. 

"I am sympathetic with your struggles and in wanting to fit in you became involved with an ideology that led you to this place," Summerhays told Matthews. “These actions were not impulsive, they were planned."

Matthews also must pay about $2.7 million in restitution to the three churches he burned. Matthews burned the three churches — St. Mary Baptist Church, Greater Union Baptist Church and Mount Pleasant Baptist Church — over a 10-day span in 2019.

During his sentencing, Matthews gave a statement to the court and apologized for his actions. "There are not enough words in the English language to express how sorry I am," Matthews said. 'If I could go back and change it all I would." Matthews also said he had "found Christ" while in jail and was remorseful that his crimes not only hurt his "real family and friends" but also his "brothers and sisters in Christ."

Federal prosecutors argued during a bond hearing earlier this year that Matthews set the churches on fire to gain notoriety in the black metal music community, a subgenre that focuses on dark themes. Followers have been tied to other church fires and extreme acts throughout the U.S. Matthews copied similar crimes committed in the 1990s by a Norwegian metal band.

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(Photo - Louisiana State Fire Marshal)