Oceanside, CA – A federal appeals court on Friday upheld the conviction of an Oceanside man found to have set fire to a Del Mar Heights Road synagogue in October 2003.
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Manuel Tiscorena Renteria was first convicted in 2004 for setting the Oct. 11, 2003, fire at the Congregation Beth Am synagogue.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the conviction, finding there had been an error in the instructions given to Renteria’s jury.
Renteria was retried in 2007, and a federal jury convicted him of one count of using fire to maliciously damage a building used in interstate commerce.
The synagogue was also home to a preschool and a gift shop that ordered items from abroad.
He was sentenced to six years and six months in federal prison. It was the same charge and same sentence Renteria saw following his first trial.