Tennessee Man Pleads Guilty in Highlander Center Arson and Bid to Aid Hezbollah

Overview

• Regan Darby Prater pleaded guilty Monday to arson and attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist group, with sentencing set for Sept. 9 before U.S. District Judge Thomas A. Varlan.
• Prosecutors said he used a napalm‑style 'sparkler bomb' to burn a Highlander Center building, causing more than $1.2 million in damage and wiping out decades of archival material.
• Court documents say he spray‑painted an Iron Guard symbol at the site and admitted a white‑supremacist motive that targeted the civil‑rights training center.
• In a separate act in 2019, he tried to pass a file with more than 35,000 people’s data tied to Israel’s government to someone he believed was with Hezbollah, writing, “Start the hunt.”
• The FBI, with help from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, cited white‑supremacist group‑chat posts and purchase records to tie him to the fire, and he had earlier received a five‑year sentence for a different 2019 arson.