Two Mississippi Women Plead Guilty To Federal Hate Crimes

Two young women from Brandon, Miss., have confessed to federal hate crimes related to racially-motivated assaults carried out by them and their associates against African-American people, culminating in the 2011 murder of a man run over with a truck.

James Craig Anderson, a 49-year-old auto plant worker who was African-American, was struck and killed on June 25, 2011, by a Ford F250 driven by a gang of white youths. His brutal murder was captured on surveillance video and broadcast nationally.

The gang of youths essentially had made a sport of looking for disabled, homeless or intoxicated African-Americans to verbally harass and physically assault, and then boasted about their deeds with the belief that such individuals would be less likely to contact law enforcement.

Shelbie Brooke Richards and Sarah Adelia Graves, both 21, each pleaded guilty last week to one count of conspiracy to violate the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, the Justice Department said in a news release. Richards also pleaded guilty to an additional count of concealing information about a felony. Sentencing dates have not been set.

Six young men from Brandon—Deryl Paul Dedmon, John Aaron Rice, Dylan Wade Butler, William Kirk Montgomery, Jonathan Kyle Gaskamp, and Joseph Dominick—previously pleaded guilty to federal charges related to the racially motivated violence.

Richards and Graves admitted that on June 26, 2011, they encouraged their co-conspirators to leave Brandon with them to assault “n------” in Jackson, Justice Department officials said.

Richards further admitted that she encouraged her co-conspirator, Deryl Paul Dedmon, to hit Anderson with his truck. In addition, Richards admitted that she falsely told law enforcement officers that she did not remember a fight between Dedmon and Anderson, and that she did not encourage Dedmon to strike Anderson with his truck.

Acting Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta of the Civil Rights Division said the investigation “surrounding the vicious murder” of Anderson resulted in the guilty pleas from the two women.

“No person should have to fear that they will be attacked because of the color of their skin as they walk the streets of their own city,” Gupta said. “We will continue to use the tools at our disposal to ensure that racial equality in America is a reality as well as an ideal.”