A 24-year-old man from North Plainfield, Jacob Beacher, has acknowledged his involvement in a hate crime related to the vandalism of an Islamic center at New Jersey’s prominent university during the Muslim celebration of Eid-al-Fitr, federal prosecutors revealed on Thursday.
Beacher, who is facing a sentence of up to three years in prison, entered a guilty plea on Wednesday for the charge of damaging religious property. His sentencing is scheduled for February 11.
Initially, Beacher was charged in April with deliberate obstruction of religious practices and providing false statements to federal investigators. These charges arose from an incident that took place on April 10 at the Center for Islamic Life at Rutgers University in New Brunswick.
According to prosecutors, Beacher not only caused damage to various items at the center but also specifically targeted religious artifacts, which included multiple objects inscribed with significant text from the Quran. Additionally, he was reported to have stolen a Palestinian flag and a charity box belonging to the center.
Authorities have clarified that Beacher does not have any ties to Rutgers University.
At the time of the break-in, which occurred around 2:40 a.m., the facility was vacant. Prosecutors assessed the total damage caused by the incident to be around $40,000.
Two days following the break-in, Beacher spoke to the FBI, acknowledging that footage from video surveillance showed someone resembling him near the Islamic center, although he denied that he had actually broken in. This incident transpired just weeks after New Jersey’s attorney general’s office reported a concerning increase in bias-related incidents within the state.