She can be contacted at 51 or on Twitter at subscription makes work like this possible. Court records list him as a habitual offender, allowing him to be sentenced to a longer prison term.Īndrea Sahouri covers breaking news for the Des Moines Register. He faced a maximum of five years in prison for the hate crime and arson charge and a maximum of a year and month for the other two charges, according to Iowa sentencing guidelines. More: Amid online outrage, police guard church where gay pride flag theft ended in 16-year sentence a place to highlight our issues and develop strategy a place to ask for help and be matched. Story County Attorney Jessica Reynolds said the hate crime charges were added because Martinez is suspected of criminal mischief against someone's property because of 'what it represents as far as sexual orientation.' Pride Flag is about all LGBTIAQ+ under the one banner. Martinez admitted to police that he lit the banner on fire with lighter fluid and a lighter after stealing it from the church, according to court documents.
