LITTLE ROCK — A white supremacist who pled guilty in an attack on an interracial couple's home near Hardy was sentenced Friday to 15 years in prison.
Gary Dodson, 32, reached a deal with prosecutors just before the second day of his jury trial was to begin last December.
As part of the agreement, two of five charges against Dodson were dropped and both sides recommended U.S. District Judge Bill Wilson accept a 180-month sentence, which fell within the federal guideline range of 168 to 210 months.
Wilson accepted the sentence and also ordered $1,500 in restitution and three years of supervised release.
Dodson, clad in an orange jail jumpsuit and with his hands and legs shackled, spoke only to answer Wilson's questions. His attorney later told Wilson that Dodson had privately expressed remorse over the incident, though Dodson opted not to speak to the court himself when asked.
"No," he said. "I concur with what my attorney said."
Assistant U.S. Attorney John Ray White said phone calls recorded while Dodson was in custody suggested he was not remorseful and that his "worldview" hadn't changed since the attack.
"That's been continuing," White said.
Dodson - who has admitted being a leader in a white supremacist group - perpetrated the Jan. 14, 2011 attack with three others. The men made molotov cocktails and then threw the incendiary devices at the home and later yelled racial slurs at the couple, prosecutors said.
One of the incendiary devices went through a window and caught fire, but no one was hurt.
Authorities say Dodson and co-defendant Jason Barnwell were white supremacist leaders and the other two men - Dustin Hammond and Jake Murphy - were recruits into their skinhead organizations. Prosecutors alleged the attack was planned because the male victim had flirted with Barnwell's girlfriend months earlier and because the attackers didn't approve of an interracial couple.
Barnwell, Hammond and Murphy pleaded guilty in the case last year.