Life outside of prison proved overwhelming for a Texas man, who set a house on fire months after his release so he could go back behind bars.
Randall Lee Church, 46, spent 26 years behind bars for stabbing a man to death, and when he was released in April, he found freedom too much to take. He missed his old prison job.
“Everything had gone fast forward without me,” he told the San Antonio Express-News from Bexar County Jail. “I didn't know how to use computers or cell phones or the Internet. The weirdest thing was walking into a store, like Walmart, and have parents hide their children from me, like I was supposed to jump at them.”
On July 10, three months after his release, Church poured gasoline through a window of an empty house, then threw in flaming rags and paper towels. He admitted his crime to police and has already pleaded guilty.
Church's original crime in 1983 was stabbing a pal named James Alfred Michael in a fight over $97 Michael, correctly, accused Church of stealing.
