JACKSON, Miss. — A judge handed down the maximum sentence for the last of ten young white adults who committed hates crimes that ended with the 2011 death of a black man in Jackson.
Robert Rice, of Brandon, was not outside a motel the night James Craig Anderson was run over and killed by a truck. But prosecutors argued he had accompanied the group to Jackson on several occasions to assault blacks. He pleaded guilty to one felony hate crime charge in January and was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison, followed by three years of probation. “God is good and we are so elated over what has happened today,” said Anderson’s sister, Barbara Anderson Young. “We just overwhelmed this morning, that’s all I can say. We just overwhelmed.”
Young said she is grateful to finally have closure, but “I still believe there are others out there that were involved, but they just haven’t been caught yet.”
