2015/05/08 – Robert Henry Rice, the last of 10 young white defendants in a hate crime conspiracy case that resulted in the death of James Craig Anderson, was sentenced to 10 years behind bars in federal court on Friday.

Rice was not present on the night of Anderson’s death, but was a party to several other trips in which the group U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate referred to as “thugs” traveled to Jackson from Rankin County to repeatedly assaulted black people.

Rice pleaded guilty to one felony hate crime charge in January. He was scheduled to be sentenced last week, but Wingate decided to base his sentencing guidelines on aggravated assault rather than second-degree murder since he was not there on the night Anderson died and his case had to be continued so his defense team could do their research.

Anderson was killed in June 2011 after he was beaten and run over by a truck driven by Deryl Dedmon. Dedmon was sentenced to 50 years in prison for Anderson’s murder.

Anderson’s sister, Barbara Anderson Young, said the family was elated to have the case behind them.

“Nice is not even the word to describe what we’ve gone through and what we feel today,” she said. “We’re just overwhelmed this morning, that’s all I can say.”

Rice participated in at least three earlier attacks, but wasn’t present when Anderson died. The prosecution argued that he was still responsible for Anderson’s death because he had been a part of the events leading up to that night. His brother, John Aaron Rice, called him the night of Anderson’s death and he drove back from the coast instantly, the prosecution argued.

“These are thugs, that’s the only way to describe them,” Wingate said. “This defendant came to Jackson multiple times to enjoy this aspect of ‘fun’ that they were going to perpetuate on innocent African Americans.”

Rice’s attorney, Lawrence Coco, battled to show that his client should not receive the maximum sentence because at least two other defendants who had arguably been more involved in the hate crime spree had gotten lighter sentences.

Wingate said that in some cases, they were sentenced to the maximum the court would allow, but that didn’t mean they might not have deserved more.

Anderson family attorney Winston Thompson said he recognizes the historical significance of the sentencing of the 10 defendants in Anderson’s death, and it has been a long ride since the family retained him early in the case to be a liaison between them and the authorities.

“It has changed my life,” he said. “At the time we didn’t know it would end up being a federal case…. it went from being, maybe this is just a one time incident, something that was planned, and they were doing it strictly for fun, and amusement. They thought this was okay.”

Young said several times throughout the case that her brother’s killing was a blight on Mississippi.

“Mississippi has a sordid past with race relations, and most citizens have tried to turn a corner,” Wingate said.

The defendants in the federal hate crime case and their sentences are as follows:

Deryl Dedmon, 22 – 50 years

John Louis Blalack, 21 – 20 years

John Aaron Rice, 22 – 18 years, 4 months

Dylan Wade Butler, 23 – 6 years, 6 months

Jonathan Kyle Gaskamp, 22 – 4 years

Joseph Paul Dominick, 23 – 4 years

William Kyle Montgomery, 25 – 18 years, 8 months

Sarah Adelia Graves, 22 – 5 years

Shelbie Brooke Richards, 21 – 8 years

Robert Henry Rice, 24 – 10 years

Source: The Clarion-Ledger 

Therese Apel