HOT SPRINGS — The last of five men convicted in a cross-burning case were sentenced Tuesday to federal prison terms.
Darren E. McKim received an 18-month sentence and Richard W. Robbins drew oneyear and one day for their roles in a plot to run a white woman and her three biracial children out of the mostly white town of Donaldson.
They previously pleaded guilty to conspiring to intimidate and making false statements.
McKim, 39, and Robbins,43, were not involved in erecting the cross in Loretta Marie Slaughter-Shirah’s yard in June 2008, but they helped plan the crime, court records say.
U.S. District Judge Robert T. Dawson imposed Robbins’ sentence after hearing his new girlfriend testify about how loving Robbins is toward her biracial daughter.
“He’s very good with her,” Julie Reynolds said.
The daughter, who is 6, attended the hearing but did not address the court.
McKim’s attorney, Benjamin Dallas Hooten, described the cross-burning case as an “aberration in his life.”
McKim gave a brief apology.
“I am truly sorry this happened,” McKim said.
Slaughter-Shirah has not attended the sentencing hearings.
On Monday, Jacob A. Wingo, 20, got a two-year prison sentence, the longest among all five defendants. Clayton D. Morrison, 30, received a 15-month sentence.
Last month, Dustin I. Nix, 21, who was the first to plead guilty in the case, received a sentence of one year and one day.
The men targeted Slaughter-Shirah after McKim told friends he saw a “nigger” at her home, court records say. The group - all of the defendants except Morrison - then talked about not wanting her in town because she associated with blacks, the records say.
Later that night, McKim and Robbins drove to her rental home in the heart of the Hot Spring County town intending to threaten and intimidate her, according to the account the men agreed to in a plea deal. But she wasn’t home.
McKim also provided a saw used to make the cross, records say.
Six days later, Wingo, Morrison and Nix put the cross in Slaughter-Shirah’s yard, and Wingo tried to ignite it with a lighter, the records say.
It never fully caught fire.
On Tuesday, attorneys for Robbins and McKim said alcohol played a role in the crime.
“This was an alcohol-fueled event as far as Ricky was concerned,” attorney Morse U. Gist said about Robbins.
Also during his hearing, the judge asked Robbins to spell his last name for the court reporter because it had been spelled incorrectly in court documents.
In addition to the prison terms, all the men are to serve three years’ supervised release and pay fines.
Meanwhile, an investigation continues into a house fire that happened after the cross burning.
Slaughter-Shirah’s home burned to the ground in what investigators ruled an act of arson.
No one has been arrested in that case.
Arkansas, Pages 11 on 12/09/2009