'Scout a target': Suspect in Congregation Beth Israel arson kept diary, feds say

AUSTIN -- On the day that federal agents say he set fire to the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue, 18-year-old Franklin Barrett Sechriest logged an alarming entry in his handwritten journal: “Scout out a target,” he wrote, according to newly unsealed court documents.

Security video later showed his Jeep SUV in the parking lot about 9 p.m. Oct. 31, a federal charge document states, just before footage revealed the orange glow of a fire that investigators say was arson.

Within a couple of days, the court documents say, Sechriest scribbled again in his journal: “I set a synagogue on fire. … Get worried when it mentions they are ‘hopeful’ a suspect will be caught.”

The entries fell in a to-do list that also included surfing the dating app Tinder, doing laundry and meditating.

Sechriest, a member of the 6th Brigade of the Texas State Guard and a Texas State University student, now faces a federal arson charge related to the fire — he already was facing an arson charge in state court — and an affidavit made public Monday described the case against him in more detail.

Read more: https://www.statesman.com/story/news/politics/2021/11/15/congregation-beth-israel-synagogue-fire-suspect-diary/8625617002/