ND Arsonist Sentenced to 15 Years for Torching Restaurant

FARGO—A man who set fire to a Somali restaurant in Grand Forks will spend 15 years in prison.

Matthew William Gust, 26, East Grand Forks, broke the front window of the Juba Coffee House and Restaurant and threw a Molotov cocktail into the building Dec. 8, 2015.

In a hearing Tuesday, a federal judge imposed a 15-year sentence for Gust, who previously pleaded guilty to arson and a hate-crime charge.

According to federal prosecutors, Gust purchased gasoline, filled a 40-ounce beer bottle and threw the Molotov cocktail into the restaurant. The gasoline-filled bottle exploded on impact, causing an explosion and fire inside Juba Cafe, which sustained more than $250,000 in damage.

"This sentence sends a clear message to those who attempt to divide our community by sowing violence and fear," said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney Vanita Gupta, head of the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, in a news release. She assisted federal prosecutors in North Dakota.

Initially, Gust faced a felony charge in Grand Forks District Court, but the case later was moved to federal court, where he was charged with malicious use of explosive materials. At first, he pleaded not guilty to charges related to the fire, but in April he reversed course and pleaded guilty to one count of malicious use of explosive materials and one count of interfering with a federally protected activity, a hate crime charge based on the Somali origin of the restaurant's owners and primary customers.

Before the plea deal, Gust faced 35 years in prison—fives years for malicious use of explosive materials and 30 years for use of a destructive device during a crime of violence.

At trial, evidence would have been presented and arguments made about the fire. Surveillance footage at the Cenex gas station on 32nd Avenue South in Grand Forks shows Gust paid $3 in cash for gas, but only pumped 81 cents worth of gas, or about 45 ounces, in the early morning hours of Dec. 8, according to a complaint in court records.

And surveillance video at Juba shows a man "approach the front of Juba and break the front window with his right fist by striking the window twice," before lighting "what appears to be a Molotov cocktail-type device" and throwing it in Juba, the complaint states.

Investigators later found drops of blood on the ground leading away from Juba in the direction the man fled, the complaint states, and an additional drop of blood was found on the interior side of the window.

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