TENNESSEE MAN SENTENCED TO NEARLY 18 YEARS IN PRISON FOR ARSON OF CIVIL RIGHTS NONPROFIT AND ATTEMPTED SUPPORT FOR TERRORISM
A 28-year-old Tennessee man has been sentenced to 210 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for using a napalm-based incendiary device to destroy a historic civil rights nonprofit and attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. Regan Darby Prater of Tullahoma was also ordered to pay $1,289,000 in restitution after pleading guilty earlier this year.
Key Details of the Case:
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The Arson Attack: Court documents reveal that Prater drove to the Highlander Center in New Market, Tennessee, where he ignited a “sparkler bomb”—a napalm-based incendiary device—destroying a building and causing over $1.2 million in damages.
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White Supremacist Ideology: Before detonating the device, Prater spray-painted the symbol of the Iron Guard (a 1930s Romanian Nazi paramilitary group) in the parking lot. He admitted the attack was motivated by white supremacy and targeted the center due to its Civil Rights Movement legacy and educational mission.
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Terrorist Support Connection: Prater also confessed to a 2019 incident in which he attempted to aid Hezbollah by acquiring a document containing the personal information of over 35,000 individuals purportedly affiliated with the Israeli government and sending it to an operative with the message, “Start the hunt.”
The joint investigation was conducted by the FBI’s Knoxville Resident Agency and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, with prosecution led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee alongside the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights and National Security divisions.
