Deryl Dedmon, two others sentenced from 7-50 years in hate crime

James Craig Anderson's partner, James Bradfield, said the couple's young son sleeps in his bed now, because "he doesn't want those people to get me."

In the victim impact statement, Bradfield, who was too emotional to speak and had a prosecutor read his statement, told Deryl Paul Dedmon, John Aaron Rice, and Dylan Wade Butler that he hoped they never see the light of day again.

"There's no room on earth for people like you," he said.

The trio were sentenced to federal prison on Tuesday as a result of Anderson's 2011 death, a hate crime in which he was beaten and run over by a truck because of the color of his skin.

The three pleaded guilty in March 2012 to one count of conspiracy and one count of committing a hate crime. U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves sentenced Dedmon to 50 years and five years to be served concurrently; John Aaron Rice to 18 ½ years and five years to be served concurrently; and Dylan Wade Butler to seven years and five years to be served concurrently. None of them are eligible for probation.

The judge said Dedmon's federal sentence will run concurrent with his state sentence.

The three are part of a group of 10 young white people who have no all pleaded guilty to coming to Jackson, which they called "Jafrica," to harass and assault African-Americans.

Anderson's sister, Barbara Anderson Young, gave an emotional statement in which she frequently looked straight at the defendants.

"Surely the violence you committed will fall upon your own head," she said, adding that her brother "lives on in me, and in our family. He also lives in you, the last to see him alive on this earth."

Butler wrote a letter to the family, part of which he read in court. He told the court about how he came from a mixed race family, with a black stepfather and stepsister and mixed cousins.

"I wish every day I could take everything back, not for me, but for the man who lost his life..." he said. "I never had a hatred for African Americans."

Butler ended by saying that he takes full responsibility for what he had done. His attorney Abby Brumley told the judge that in her time as an attorney, she'd never seen a defendant who so completely owned and so deeply regretted what he had done.

"While he may not have gotten out of the car or laid a hand on Mr. Anderson, he has continually wondered what he should have or could have done," she said. "The person standing here today would have stopped that heinous act."

Rice addressed the court as well, simply saying, "I'd like the family to know, from the bottom of my heart, that I wasn't raised racist. I'm very sorry, from the bottom of my heart."

Dedmon turned to look at the family as he said, "I just want to say to the Anderson family, again, how truly sorry I am. That's all."

Reeves told the defendants to sit down as he read a speech he had prepared before their sentencing. He talked about Mississippi's embattled past, and how hate crimes through the years have included lynchings, among them, hunts for African-Americans.

That's what the group was doing during their spree of hate crimes, and that's what they did to Anderson, he said. Mississippi soil has been stained with the blood of black people who were killed as a result of hate.

"On June 26, 2011, four days short of his birthday, the blood of James Craig Anderson was added to Mississippi's soil," he said.

He talked about the terrifying idea that the hunts for African-Americans that marred the state's history "were perpetrated in this case by our children."

"Mississippi is a place and a state of mind," he said. "Those who think they know her people and her past need to understand that our story is not completely written."

Reeves went on to point out the sadness and the irony of the day.

"Each defendant was escorted in by African-American U.S. Marshals, prosecuted by an African-American Assistant U.S. Attorney, from an office headed by an African-American U.S. Attorney, under an African-American Attorney General, and my final act will be to turn them over to the Bureau of Prisons, which is also led by an African American," he said.

Seven others are awaiting sentencing.

Reeves will sentence Joseph Paul Dominick, William Kirk Montgomery and Jonathan Kyle Gaskamp on Feb. 25. Dominick pleaded guilty to conspiracy in 2013 and faces five years in prison. Montgomery, who pleaded guilty in 2012, faces life in prison on a hate crime charge and five years on conspiracy. Gaskamp, who wasn't present the night Anderson died, pleaded guilty in 2012. He faces five years in prison for conspiracy and 10 years on a hate crime charge.

U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate will sentence four people:

— Sarah Adelia Graves, who pleaded guilty in December, faces five years in prison on a conspiracy charge at sentencing April 9.

— Shelbie Brooke Richards, who pleaded guilty in December to conspiracy and concealing the crime by lying to police, faces eight years in prison at sentencing April 16.

— John Louis Blalack, who pleaded guilty Jan. 7 to two hate crimes charges, faces 20 years in prison at sentencing April 23.

— Robert Henry Rice, who pleaded guilty Jan. 7 to one hate crime charge, faces 10 years in prison at sentencing April 30.

Contact Therese Apel at (601) 961-7236 or tapel@gannett.com. Follow @TRex21 on Twitter.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.