Judge denies motion to change plea of Islamic Ctr arson suspec - 13abc.com Toledo (OH) News, Weather and Sports

The judge has denied Randy Linn's motion to withdraw his guilty plea. Sentencing moves forward April 16th.

Linn is accused of setting fire to the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo last year.

Based on the plea agreement previously reached with prosecutors, Linn is expected to get 20 years in prison.

"What if he is insane? Then we've made a grave mistake," says John Thebes, Randy Linn's attorney.

Thebes failed in federal court on Thursday to convince the judge to allow the 52-year-old from Indiana to withdraw his guilty plea.

Thebes argued Linn needed to undergo psychological testing to determine whether Linn could make an insanity defense.

"Let's undo this knot that's been tied. Allow him to un-do the plea. And let's have a professional look at his sanity," says Thebes.

Linn pleaded guilty back in December to setting the fire at the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo on September 30^th of last year.

During the December hearing Linn told the judge he drank 45 beers in about a seven hour period before driving from his home in St. Joe, Indiana, out here to Perrysburg stopping once for gas.

Inside the prayer room of the mosque, prosecutors say Linn used gasoline to set the carpet on fire causing flames all the way up to the chandeliers.

On Thursday, US attorneys said the insanity defense was waived with the guilty plea, plus the court found Linn was competent when he entered the guilty plea.

Judge Jack Zouhary denied Linn's request to withdraw the plea saying he did not find anything unusual to make him question Linn's mental capacity.

Thebes says Linn is disappointed and remorseful.

"We certainly harbor no ill will toward Mr. Linn," says Cherrefe Kadri, President of the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo.

Kadri says the repairs from the fire are almost complete and the Muslim community is moving on.

"He's lost everything from this one act of hatred," says Kadri. "And hopefully that's a lesson that that's what hatred does to ourselves and to others."

Linn plans to appeal the conviction. Thebes says one of the issues will be what happened inside the courtroom on Thursday.