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ST. LOUIS, U.S.A., June 24, 2003: A judge has ordered 120 days in a prison boot camp for a young man who firebombed the Hindu Temple in west St. Louis County this year. Nathaniel Connor, 17, pled guilty Tuesday in St. Louis County Circuit Court of two counts each of second-degree arson and criminal possession of a weapon. Judge John F. Kintz also sentenced Connor to five years of probation if he graduates from boot camp — or three years in prison if he flunks. Also part of the plea agreement is restitution for the damage to the temple. That figure has yet to be determined. Connor admitted that he and an accomplice threw Molotov cocktails at the temple’s door on February 22 and through a window on March 1 of 2003. Resulting fires caused minor damage to the temple, but considerable consternation to temple members, who worried they had been targets of hate crimes. HPI adds: a prison boot camp is run like an army training camp with an extremely strict regime of physical and mental education.

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