TOLEDO (AP) -- A former Marine who said he set fire to an Ohio mosque because he wanted to avenge the killings of American troops has asked to withdraw his guilty plea to federal hate crime charges.
Randy Linn says he was under duress and depressed when he entered his plea last month in the fire at a suburban Toledo mosque.
A deal between prosecutors and Linn had called for him to be sentenced to 20 years next April after he pleaded guilty to intentionally damaging and destroying religious property and two gun-related charges.
Prosecutors say he broke into The Islamic Center of Greater Toledo last fall and went room by room to make sure no one was in the building before he poured gasoline on a prayer rug and lit it on fire.
Linn described on Dec. 19 how he had been drinking heavily before he drove to the mosque in Perrysburg.
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