{"id":8576,"date":"2025-10-17T17:45:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T17:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/8576\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T17:45:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T17:45:14","slug":"man-accused-of-church-fire-set-for-arraignment-charlotte-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/8576\/","title":{"rendered":"Man accused of church fire set for arraignment | Charlotte County"},"content":{"rendered":"

The man accused of setting fire to a\u00a0Chabad Jewish Center in Punta Gorda is set for an arraignment in federal court.<\/p>\n

The arraignment is set for 2 p.m. on Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Blake Hoover is accused of setting the fire in September. Following the incident, the Punta Gorda Police Department tracked Hoover’s car to the Chabad area using a license plate reader. Hoover’s mother said he expressed hatred toward Jewish people and returned home with an empty gas can and spray paint the night of the arson.<\/p>\n

\"blake<\/p>\n

In late September<\/a>, Hoover faced a judge in court after being federally charged with felony arson for alleged crimes in Charlotte County. The State Attorney\u2019s Office prosecutor requested his detention, citing him as a community threat.<\/p>\n

Hoover was appointed federal defense attorney James Lapin after it was determined he could not afford legal representation.<\/p>\n

He waived his right to a detention and preliminary hearing, resulting in his continued custody.<\/p>\n

If convicted, Hoover faces a minimum of five years and up to 20 years in federal prison. Additionally, he could be fined up to $250,000 and a $100 mandatory special assessment.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned to WINKNews.com<\/a>, WINK News App, streaming, and on-air for any new developments on this story.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The man accused of setting fire to a\u00a0Chabad Jewish Center in Punta Gorda is set for an arraignment…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8577,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[8781,209,211,210,8783,853,8782],"class_list":["post-8576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-blake-hoover","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-chabad-jewish-center","tag-charlotte-county","tag-state-attorneys-office"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}