Sister says Reno suspect couldn't have been involved in Sacramento

RENO, Nev. - The sister of a California man arrested in the firebombing of a Jewish synagogue in Reno says her brother couldn't have been involved in the torching of three synagogues in Sacramento.

Lynn Hudson told the Sacramento Bee her brother Scott was in prison for auto theft at the time the Sacramento synagogues were set on fire.

Scott Hudson, 23, is one of four people arrested in the Reno incident. Two others are being sought. Police said the suspects are white supremacists who targeted Temple Emanu El.

A Molotov cocktail was thrown at a window of the synagogue Tuesday evening, but failed to break through the glass and bounced harmlessly onto the asphalt below.

Matthew and Tyler Williams, who face capital murder charges in Redding for the July shooting deaths of a prominent gay couple, are considered the prime suspects in the Sacramento arsons.

They have not been charged in the Sacramento case and authorities have said for some time that the brothers likely had help because the three fires were all set within one hour.

Lynn Hudson says her brother worked in Reno and lived with her on weekends in Esparto, west of Sacramento.

Lynn Hudson said her brother Scott is an unlikely candidate for the Sacramento crimes because he was in prison at the time for auto theft.

''I don't know what he does when he's in Reno, but when he's living with me, whenever he says one derogatory word I tell him, 'Not in my house,''' she said. ''I don't agree with his views.''

Reno Police Lt. Jake Wiskerchen said the presence of the racist group came as a surprise to his gang unit.

''We didn't even know these people existed until a week before the firebombing when two of them were seen by our gang officers downtown,'' he told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

''We did field interviews and established they had very strong white supremacist feelings. These are people who mainly are against anybody that isn't white.''

Along with Hudson, felony charges of arson, conspiracy and use of explosives face Christopher Scott Hampton, 22; Joshua Andrew Kudlacek, 18, and a 17-year-old woman, all of Reno.

Police continue to search for Daniel Austin McIntosh, 19, and Carl Barry DeAmicis, 25.

Nevada has no hate-crime enhancement for crimes against property, but the FBI is investigating whether to charge them under federal hate-crime laws, Wiskerchen said.