Update: Shelbie Brooke Richards of Pearl was sentenced to 8 years in prison on one count each of conspiracy to commit a hate crime and concealing the crime by lying to police. Sarah Adelia Graves of Crystal Springs received 5 years in prison for one count of conspiracy to commit a hate crime.
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Two young white women, part of a group who repeatedly searched Mississippi’s capital city for black people to attack, are scheduled to be sentenced Thursday.
In separate hearings, United States District Judge Henry T. Wingate will sentence Sarah Adelia Graves and Shelbie Brooke Richards. Graves pleaded guilty in December to a conspiracy count and faces up to five years in prison. Richards, who pleaded guilty in December to conspiracy and concealing the crime by lying to police, faces eight years in prison.
Both Graves and Richards were riding in a truck Deryl Paul Dedmon was driving that ran over James Craig Anderson in June 2011. Anderson died after being beaten and run over.
A different judge already sentenced six white men involved in the crime, giving them prison terms ranging from four to 50 years. Two more men await sentencing after Thursday.
Both women have acknowledged that they helped recruit people at a birthday party to take part in the venture that eventually led to Anderson’s death. Richards admitted that she encouraged Dedmon to assault Anderson when they arrived in a hotel parking lot, and then yelled a racial slur and encouraged Dedmon to run over Anderson when Dedmon returned to the truck.
Hotel surveillance video, obtained by The Associated Press and other media outlets, shows a Ford truck back up and then lunge forward at 5:05 a.m. Anderson’s shirt is illuminated in the headlights before he disappears under the vehicle next to the curb.
Richards also acknowledged that later that month, she lied to Jackson police detectives about the incident and her participation.
The 10 defendants have pleaded guilty to other racially motivated attacks, including the beating of a black man near a Jackson golf course, the beating of another man who tried to sell the suburbanites drugs, attacks on pedestrians using beer bottles and a slingshot, and an attempt to run down another black man.
Prosecutors said the suspects usually sought out people who were homeless or drunk. Other than Anderson, the black people who were assaulted have not been identified.
Recent Immigration Stories
The Mississippi Free Press produced this story through the MFP Solutions Lab, supported by the Solutions Journalism Network. This series digs into Mississippi’s systemic issues and sheds light on responses to them in other communities. Beyond just reporting on problems, these stories interrogate their causes and inspect potential solutions.
