San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced a charge Friday for the man arrested in a suspected arson on Dec. 5 at SF Hillel. His arraignment is scheduled for Friday afternoon.
Mitchell Hoyt, 36, of San Francisco was charged with arson of a structure, which is a felony. Prosecutors also noted evidence of a prior felony conviction; under California’s “Three Strikes” law, penalties can be enhanced for repeat offenders.
The arson raised concerns in the Jewish community that the building had been targeted because it was a Hillel house. Hoyt’s arrest came days after a terrorist attack in Sydney targeting Jews left 15 dead.
A press release from the DA’s office said it had not found evidence that the crime was motivated by antisemitism.
“The District Attorney’s Office independently analyzed the evidence and found that there was insufficient evidence to pursue hate crime allegations at this time as it does not appear that the fire was set to specifically target Jewish students,” the statement said.
San Francisco police told J. that officers identified Hoyt as the suspect while he was already in jail for an unrelated matter.
The fire, which caused “significant damage” to the Hillel house and forced its closure, started around 1:55 p.m. on Dec. 5 in outdoor garbage bins located along the side of the building. The student life team was inside the building at time time preparing for the final Shabbat of the semester, SF Hillel said, but no one was harmed.
Extensive damage to the basement and a second-floor bathroom were reported, along with the loss of most student programming materials, which were stored near the area of the fire.
According to the District Attorney’s Office, the fire caused an estimated $20,000 in damage. The DA will move to have Hoyt detained pending trial without bail because of the public safety risk he poses.
Although charges have been filed, the investigation remains active, officials said.
The Hillel building is located a block from San Francisco State University and serves students from all colleges across the city.
SF Hillel director Roger Feigelson expressed some relief that a hate crime was not charged.
“While the incident itself was deeply unsettling, our staff and students can rest just a bit easier knowing that we were not targeted because we are a Jewish institution,” Feigelson wrote in an email to the SF Hillel community. “Given the current environment, it would have been understandable to assume otherwise, which makes this clarification a meaningful relief.”