Jacques will be held in a federal detention center until his sentencing in the arson of the black church hours after Barack Obama was elected president.
Andrew C. Robinson, administrative assistant to Bishop Bryant Robinson Jr., and minister of music of the Macedonia Church of God in Christ on Tinkham Road, looks over the progress of construction in the sanctuary Friday afternoon. The reconstruction of the church is nearly complete after the original building was destroyed by an arson fire in the hours after Barack Obama was elected president in November 2008.SPRINGFIELD – As Michael F. Jacques surrendered to federal marshals Friday, workers were rebuilding the pulpit of the Macedonia Church of God in Christ he was convicted of burning down 30 months ago.
Jacques, 26, arrived at U.S. District Court just before noon, the deadline set by Judge Michael A. Ponsor after a jury convicted him on civil rights and arson charges late Thursday afternoon.
Before turning himself in Friday, Jacques expressed sympathy for parishioners of the Macedonia Church of God in Christ, the black congregation whose $2.5 million church was incinerated several hours after Barack Obama’s election on Nov. 4, 2008.
“I’m sorry that that did happen,” Jacques told reporters outside the courthouse.
“I obviously didn’t do it. My heart does go out to those people. But I am innocent, and I will appeal, and justice will prevail.”
Along with two other white men, Jacques confessed a role in the gasoline-fed blaze that razed the Tinkham Road church several months before its scheduled completion. Jacques later recanted, claiming investigators pressured him during a 6½-hour interrogation.
The others – Benjamin F. Haskell and Thomas A. Gleason, both 24 of Springfield – pleaded guilty in June. Haskell was given a 9-year sentence; Gleason will be sentenced in October.
Capping a 3½-week trial, jurors found Jacques guilty of conspiracy to violate civil rights, destruction of religious property and using fire to commit a felony.
At the request of defense lawyer Lori H. Levinson, the judge allowed Jacques to remain free Thursday night to visit his father, who is critically ill and hospitalized.
His destination beyond Springfield was unclear; Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul H. Smyth said he could be sent to the Wyatt Detention Center in a facility in Central Falls, R.I., until his sentencing on Sept. 15.
In this cell photo photo, Michael Jacques leaves federal court on Thursday in Springfield, where a jury convicted him on all charges he faced in the burning of the Macedonia Church of God in Christ in Springfield shortly after President Barack Obama was elected in November 2008. (AP Photo/Dave Collins)By that time, the new Macedonia Church of God in Christ will have been open for three months, if construction continues on schedule.
“We’re 90 percent finished, maybe 95 percent,” said James A. Tarrant, the church’s principal contractor, as he pounded nails into the pulpit area of the 18,000-square foot building.
When the fire erupted in 2008, the church was about 75 percent done; crucially, the dry walls, which would have protected the skeleton, had not been installed, leaving it vulnerable to gasoline fire, Tarrant said.
During the trial, Tarrant, owner of Chicopee-based Construction Management of New England Inc., testified that neither electricity nor natural gas had been hooked up at the site, and could not have caused the fire.
When he first learned about the fire in 2008, Tarrant said he thought “it was some kind of bad joke,” he said Friday. “Then I came here and saw it.”
The smell of smoke lingered long after the fire, and didn’t disappear until the original cement floors were torn up and removed, Tarrant said.
The rebuilt church’s exterior is completed, and most of the interior work – from installation of heating, air conditioning and sprinkler systems – is also done, Tarrant said.
By the time the church opens, Tarrant will have spent four years at the Tinkham Road site, he said.
“This is the longest project I’ve ever worked on,” he said.
The pastor, Bishop Bryant Robinson, said the conviction marks the end of another chapter in the arson saga for his congregation.
“I’m pleased on one level that a jury of (Jacques’) peers determined he was material to this heinous crime,” Robinson said.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.