Rabbis and Jewish community leaders alike agreed “justice was served” last Friday when two white supremacist siblings responsible for three Sacramento synagogue arsons were sentenced to lengthy prison terms.
Benjamin Matthew Williams, whom prosecutors called “the match lighter” in the case, was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison. His younger brother, James Tyler Williams, was sentenced to 21 years and three months.
The pair pleaded guilty in September to a 1999 Sacramento-area burning spree aimed at Congregation B’nai Israel, Knesset Israel Torah Center, Congregation Beth Shalom and the Country Club Medical Center, which houses the Choice Medical Group abortion clinic.
“It is very gratifying that justice turned out to be on our side,” said B’nai Israel Rabbi Brad Bloom, whose congregation sustained more than $1 million in damages on the night of June 18, 1999. “While this is not a time to revel in joy, we certainly feel a sense of satisfaction.”
He commended the court, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Sacramento and area law enforcement agencies for the positive roles they all played in Friday’s “favorable” outcome, which included an order for the brothers to pay more than $1 million in restitution to the synagogues.
Since the brothers, both of Palo Cedro near Redding, still face charges for the 1999 slaying of a gay couple in Shasta County, it is unlikely the restitution will ever be paid.
“Usually a prisoner would have to make scheduled payments at the end of their prison term,” said Stephen Lapham, a prosecuting attorney for the arson case. “But these guys will undoubtedly get a life sentence in the murder case — they are never going to get out of jail.”
Lapham added that there was “no question” he and fellow prosecuting attorney Benjamin Wagner were pleased with U.S. District Judge Garland Burrell Jr.’s decision.
“Matthew Williams had a smirk on his face the entire time, up until the judge pronounced sentence,” said Lapham. “When they started to cart him off he just looked so crestfallen. His little 15 minutes of fame had finally come to the end.”
Jonathan Bernstein, Anti-Defamation League executive director, applauded the brothers’ imprisonment, but he noted that the arsons left wounds deeper than those of the charred buildings.
“As a result of their actions Jews everywhere have been re-evaluating the impact of anti-Semitism,” said Bernstein, who heads the ADL’s S.F.-based Central Pacific region office.
He added that the brothers, though only in their early 30s, unfortunately have made it clear that they are “non-reformable, hardcore haters.” And while “they’re not going anywhere,” their message of hate remains at large.
In fact just two weekends ago, a mass distribution of “blatantly anti-Semitic fliers” from the National Socialist Movement, blaming the Jews for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, littered Sacramento area neighborhoods, said Karen Zatz, the regional ADL associate director.
“Look at the Williams brothers, who [prior to their arrests] had in their possession materials from various hate movements,” she said. “You never know the impact that this type of thing is having on people’s hearts and minds.”
Bernstein, meanwhile, complimented the Sacramento community for its “very strong, positive, vigorous, ongoing response” to combating hatred since the arsons.
Bloom agreed, though he called the arsons “one of the most difficult experiences” in his congregation’s existence.
“But it taught us how to stick together as a community,” he said. “It connected us to our history and to our forebears in ways we never could have anticipated. It also taught us how we as a congregation have to respond to those who suffer terrorist attacks, whether foreign or domestic.”
At Friday’s 2-1/2-hour sentencing hearing, Bloom received the judge’s permission to speak directly to the defendants. Facing the two, he called them part of “a continuum of anti-Semites that we in the Jewish community have known for a millennium or more.”
Stressing his congregation’s perseverance in a time of intended victimization, Bloom said that those impacted by the arsons refuse to be victims.
“And when I turned around towards him,” he said, referring to Matthew Williams, “I didn’t feel like a victim.”