Indiana man indicted in church fires

Christian Century, May 12, 1999

Federal grand juries in Indianapolis and Atlanta indicted an Indiana man on April 20 in ten church arsons in Indiana and Georgia. Jay Scott Ballinger, 36, could face the death penalty for a Georgia blaze that killed a volunteer firefighter. Police in Indiana, where Ballinger is accused of seven church arsons, said he dabbled in satanic rituals.

Federal officials in Washington said they were not certain where they would try Ballinger first. But Georgia Fire Commissioner John Oxendine said he thinks the fatal fire gives his state priority. "We have the most serious church fire of any in the United States because it was a murder, nothing more than a plain murder of a volunteer firefighter," he said.

In February, Ballinger, of Yorktown, Indiana, was arrested in connection with an Ohio church fire that police say left him severely burned. He is being held without bond in a federal medical facility in Minnesota. Richard Deane, U.S. attorney for the northern district of Georgia, said federal prosecutors will decide whether to seek the death penalty. If Ballinger doesn't face the death penalty, he could get a maximum prison sentence of 50 years in Georgia and 210 years in Indiana if found guilty.

Ballinger has been charged with the most church fires of any individual since the National Church Arson Task Force began investigating church fires three years ago. That task force has investigated 752 church fires and bombings nationwide, charging 331 suspects in 249 attacks. Many of the initial fires were set at black churches and were assumed to be racially motivated acts of arson. Acting Assistant Attorney General Bill Lann Lee in Washington noted that Ballinger "is a white man charged with setting fire to predominantly white churches."

Ballinger has told federal agents that he burned 30 to 50 churches between 1994 and 1998, according to an affidavit by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. He said the churches were in 11 states. The February affidavit said satanic materials were found in Ballinger's home. In 1994, parents complained that Ballinger was recruiting teenagers into a cult. Police confiscated from his home about 50 contracts signed in blood by teenagers who agreed to give their souls to the devil and do "all types of evil" in exchange for sex, power and wealth.