NORTH PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A Rhode Island man who deliberately set fires around the exterior of a predominantly Black Pentecostal church and threw feces and urine at two correctional officers has been sentenced to more than six years in federal prison.
Kevin Colantonio, 36, of North Providence, was arrested in February 2024, days after attempting to burn down the Shiloh Gospel Temple Ministries at 974 Charles St., near his home. No one was in the building at the time, and the North Providence police and firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze.
The church services were canceled for several days, preventing congregants from enjoying their free exercise of religious beliefs.
The pastor had reported to police hours before the fires that he saw someone on the church’s Ring camera doorbell attempting to break in. The pastor later identified Colantonio as the man he saw on the Ring camera.
Colantonio was also seen on surveillance camera buying gasoline at a nearby gas station. He later admitted in court that he bought $10 of gasoline and a Bic lighter at the gas station, then headed to the church and started lighting fires.
Afterward, Colantonio messaged a family member that no one in the community cared about the arson, calling the church “Athiest God mockers,” and that, “They’re busy dancing around collecting money.”
Days after the fires, investigators searched Colantonio’s apartment and found racist writings in notebooks: “Hunt them down, gun everyone down who isn’t white. Always give our bloodline a chance. Eliminate rich, snob, elite pastors. Burn churches down to the ground. They’ll get the hint church isn’t for them and will scramble around like idiots.”
An accelerant-detection canine indicated a positive reaction on several items of seized clothing, which resembled what surveillance footage showed Colantonio was wearing the night of the arson.
Colantonio pleaded guilty in February 2025 to malicious damage by means of fire; obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs; and two counts of assault on a federal officer, for throwing a mug of feces and urine at correctional officers while he was detained at Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, R.I.
US District Court Chief Judge John J. McConnell Jr. sentenced Colantonio to 78 months of incarceration, followed by three years of supervised release.
Assistant US Attorney Peter I. Roklan and Taylor Payne of the criminal section of the Civil Rights Division prosecuted the case, which was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the North Providence police, and the R.I. state fire marshals office. The US Marshals Service investigated the assault at Wyatt.
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