Mobile man who scrawled anti-Jewish slogans on synagogue gets year in jail

Thomas Hayward Lewis, seen here in a 2009 police mugshot, has been sentenced in federal court in Mobile, Ala., to a year and a day in jail for having scrawled anti-Jewish slogans and symbols on a church building and having bomb components in his bedroom.
















MOBILE, Alabama -- U.S. District Judge Kristi DuBose has sentenced Thomas Hayward Lewis to a year and a day in jail for having scrawled anti-Jewish slogans and symbols on a church building and having bomb components in his bedroom.


The sentence was less than the range set forth by advisory guidelines but more than the probation sought by defense attorney Sid Harrell. The judge said a jail sentence was necessary to deter others.

“I think what we have is a serious crime that was thwarted, actually,” she said.

Lewis, 24, pleaded guilty in August to damaging religious property and possession of an explosive device. He admitted that he and another man spray-painted anti-Jewish messages on the Congregation Tree of Life Messianic Synagogue on Jeff Hamilton Road in Mobile.

Authorities say Thomas' accomplice, Christian Rodney Ice, pleaded guilty in March 2010 to damaging religious property and agreed to assist law enforcement authorities. He's serving two years' probation.