MISSISSIPPI – Four people were indicted for a racially motivated hate crimes spree in Jackson for allegedly using weapons, including beer bottles, sling shots and motor vehicles to try to injury blacks.
The federal grand jury indicted John Louis Blalack, 20, of Brandon, Mississippi, Sarah Adelia Graves, 21, of Crystal Springs, Mississippi, Robert Henry Rice, 23, of Brandon, and Shelbie Brooke Richards, 20, of Pearl, Mississippi, for their alleged roles in a conspiracy to commit federal hate crimes against blacks in Jackson, authorities said.
Defendants Deryl Paul Dedmon, 20; John Aaron Rice, 19; Dylan Wade Butler, 21; William Kirk Montgomery, 23; Jonathan Kyle Gaskamp, 20; and Joseph Dominick, 22, all from Brandon, have previously entered guilty pleas in connection with their roles in these offenses.
The indictment details several assaults, including the fatal assault on James Craig Anderson who was beaten then killed after being run over, in front of the Metro Inn in Jackson in June of 2011.
Beginning in the Spring of 2011, the defendants and others conspired with one another to harass and assault blacks.
The co-conspirators are alleged to have specifically targeted African-American people they believed to be homeless or under the influence of alcohol because they believed that such individuals would be less likely to report an assault.
The co-conspirators would often boast about these racially motivated assaults. The fatal assault was captured on hotel surveillance video.
Anderson’s family has asked prosecutors not to pursue the death penalty, saying they’re opposed to capital punishment. The family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against all seven of those allegedly involved in Anderson’s death. The lawsuit, pending in Hinds County Circuit Court, seeks unspecified damages, according to the Sun Herald newspaper.
The defendants face a statutory maximum sentence of life in prison.
The case was investigated by the FBI and the Jackson Police Department