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Thursday, October 22, 2026

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Courts · Thursday, October 22, 2026

Judge sentences Regan Prater to 210 months in prison

The File desk · Oct. 22, 2026, 6:40 a.m. ET

Confirmed1 primary sources

Status

Confirmed from the Justice Department release on the sentence imposed Oct. 20, 2026. Regan Darby Prater pleaded guilty in April 2026. The sentence is the court's. The account of the crime is the government's account of that guilty plea.
  • Confirmed
    The department said Prater, 28, of Tullahoma, Tennessee, was sentenced to 210 months, three years of supervised release, and $1,289,000 in restitution.
  • Confirmed
    He pleaded guilty in April 2026 to arson and attempted . This is not an open charge.
A Tennessee man who pleaded guilty to arson and to trying to support a terrorist group was sentenced Tuesday to 210 months in prison. He is Regan Darby Prater, 28, of Tullahoma. The Justice Department said he destroyed a building at the Highlander Center in New Market.1
The department said that the sentence, imposed yesterday, includes three years of supervised release and $1,289,000 in restitution. It says he used a sparkler bomb, which it calls a napalm-based device, and caused more than $1.2 million in damage. It says he spray-painted the symbol of the Iron Guard and that he acknowledged the arson was tied to white-supremacist ideology and to the center's civil-rights work. In 2019, it says, he gave a document he said contained personal information on more than 35,000 people to someone he believed was tied to Hizballah, and told that person, “Start the hunt.” He pleaded guilty in April 2026.1
The case is a sentence after a guilty plea, not a pending charge. The department's account is the record used here.
Why it matters (Estimate). Estimate. The Highlander Center is a place people know from the civil-rights era. The government says a man burned a building there because of that history, and that he had already tried to hand a list of people to someone he thought was a terrorist. The court has now set the prison term. The date of the fire is not in the sentences used here.
The town named in the release is New Market, Tennessee, and the defendant is from Tullahoma.
How we know

Notes

  1. 1.Department of Justice, “Tennessee Man Sentenced to Over 17 Years in Prison for Arson and Attempting to Provide Material Support,” Oct. 21, 2026, describing a sentence imposed the day before. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/tennessee-man-sentenced-over-17-years-prison-arson-and-attempting-provide-material-support “Regan Darby Prater, 28, of Tullahoma, Tennessee, was sentenced yesterday to 210 months in prison, three years of supervised release, and to pay $1,289,000 in restitution for arson and attempted provision of .” He pleaded guilty in April 2026. The device is described as a sparkler bomb, a napalm-based incendiary. Damage “over $1.2 million.” Highlander Center, New Market, Tennessee. Iron Guard symbol. The 2019 document “purporting to contain personally identifiable information of over 35,000 individuals.” The quoted line is “Start the hunt.” This is a sentence after a guilty plea. The open-case presumption does not apply.

What is still unknown or disputed

  • The date of the fire. Not printed here.
  • Which judge imposed the sentence, beyond the department's account of the judgment.

Primary sources

Every claim in this story is drawn from the documents below. If a fetch failed, that is recorded on the card.

  1. Source 1

    Prater sentenced for arson and attempted material support

    U.S. Department of Justice · October 21, 2026

    Regan Darby Prater was sentenced to 210 months after pleading guilty in April 2026.

    https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/tennessee-man-sentenced-over-17-years-prison-arson-and-attempting-provide-material-support

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