JACKSON, Miss. — Three white men, including a teenager who pleaded guilty to murder and hate-crime charges in Mississippi state court for running over a black man with his truck, were charged Thursday with federal hate crimes.
Dylan Butler, 20, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to conspiracy to commit a hate crime and to committing a hate crime. Two others, Deryl Dedmon and John Aaron Rice, also were in court and were expected to plead guilty later in the afternoon.
Prosecutors read the allegations against the three, saying that on numerous occasions one or all three harassed or assaulted black people who they thought were homeless or intoxicated.
Victims were chosen because they thought they would not tell police, authorities said.
The harassment began in April 2011, culminating in the death of James Craig Anderson on June 26.
Each is charged with the same two crimes. They face up to five years in prison on the conspiracy charge and up to life on the hate-crime charge.
Butler was accused of being with Dedmon and Rice the night Anderson was run over and on at least one other occasion throwing beer bottles and using a slingshot to shoot marbles at black people.
Several people wept in court during the hearing.
Butler did not speak other than to answer the judge’s questions “yes” or “no.”
In entering his guilty plea to the state charges Wednesday, Dedmon admitted he and a group of white teens were partying in Puckett, a small town outside Jackson, when he suggested they find a black man to harass and went to Jackson because of its majority-black population. They found Anderson before dawn outside a hotel. He was beaten before Dedmon ran over him.
Dedmon, 19, received two life sentences on those charges.
The case received widespread attention after a video of Anderson’s death was obtained by news organizations.
The video, taken by a hotel surveillance camera, shows a green Ford truck back up in the hotel parking lot, then lunge forward.
Anderson’s shirt is illuminated in the headlights before he disappears under the vehicle. Police said Dedmon was driving the truck and later bragged that he ran over Anderson.
Dedmon was initially indicted on a state charge of capital murder, which in Mississippi carries sentences of death or life in prison without parole, but District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith said prosecutors couldn’t have gotten a conviction. For capital murder, there must be an underlying offense, which had been robbery. Smith said the investigation revealed that the group did not take Anderson’s wallet, as investigators first believed.
Rice is charged by the state with simple assault in the case. Authorities said he left the scene in another vehicle before Anderson was killed.
Rice has pleaded innocent in that case and is free on a $5,000 bond.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 03/23/2012