The Justice Department announced Friday that a Mississippi man plead guilty in federal court to a hate crime for burning a cross in his front yard with the intent to intimidate a Black family.
According to court documents, Axel C. Cox, 24, of Gulfport, admitted to violating the Fair Housing Act when he used threatening and racially derogatory remarks toward his Black neighbors and burned a cross to intimidate them.
Cox stated that he gathered supplies from his residence, put a wooden cross in his front yard, and propped it up so his Black neighbors could see it.
Cox then doused the cross with motor oil and lit it on fire. Cox admitted that he burned the cross because of the victims’ race and because they were occupying a home next to his.
“Burning a cross invokes the long and painful history, particularly in Mississippi, of intimidation and impending physical violence against Black people,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
“The collaboration among the Gulfport Police Department, the FBI, the Civil Rights Division and our office brought this defendant to justice,” said U.S. Attorney Darren LaMarca for the Southern District of Mississippi. “Individuals in our communities should be free from threats and intimidation,” said Assistant Director Luis Quesada of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division. “The FBI and our law enforcement partners will continue to bring to justice anyone who violates the federal laws designed to ensure civil rights are protected.”
Sentencing is scheduled for March 9. Cox faces up to 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, or both.
The Gulfport Police Department and the FBI Jackson Field Office investigated the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea Cabell Jones and Trial Attorney Noah Coakley II of the Civil Rights Division Criminal Section prosecuted the case.
For more information and resources on the department’s efforts to combat hate crimes, visit www.justice.gov/hatecrimes.