A man who admitted in federal court to setting the fire that destroyed an eastern Missouri church has been sentenced to more than nine years in prison and ordered to pay the church nearly $7 million.
The sentence for Christopher Scott Pritchard, 49, was imposed Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp over the April 2021 fire at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints building in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, about 115 miles (185 kilometers) southeast of St. Louis. Pritchard pleaded guilty in December to one felony count of arson and another felony count of arson to a building used in interstate commerce.
