2015/04/23 – John Louis Blalack was scheduled to be sentenced today in the hate crimes investigation stemming from the death of James Craig Anderson. Blalack’s sentencing is now set for April 30.

Blalack, 20, pleaded guilty in January to two counts of violating the Matthew Shepard — James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. in 2011, Anderson, 47, was targeted by several white teens in a hotel parking lot, was harassed and beaten, then run down by a pickup driven by Deryl Dedmon

In his plea hearing, Blalack described how he and three others left a party in Puckett on the night Anderson died and headed to Jackson, which they referred to as “Jafrica,” in order to find African Americans to antagonize. He said he collected beer bottles to throw, though he said the initial plan was to throw them at buildings and signs and other things.

Robert Henry Rice, 24, is also scheduled for sentencing on April 30. The two will be sentenced in Judge Henry T. Wingate’s court.

Source: The Clarion Ledger 

Harold Gater