A Indianapolis man in the area who burned a cross and erected a swastika to intimidate his black neighbor pleaded guilty Friday to charges of hate crime and weapons.
Shepherd Hoehn, 51, who is white, was angry because a neighbor removed a tree on June 18, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the southern district of Indiana said. The tree was on the neighbor’s yard.
Hoehn then erected a cross and burned to the house of the neighbor; uses silver adhesive tape to create a hook crust on its fence; blew the song “Dixie” on repeat; and, according to a plea agreement, displayed a sign with racial remarks.
“Hoehn’s hateful and threatening actions, motivated by racial intolerance, are a serious crime that will not be tolerated by the Department of Justice,” said Pam Karlan, Chief Deputy Attorney General of the Department’s Civil Rights Division. , said in a statement.
A request for comment from Hoehn’s public defender was not immediately returned Friday night.
Hoehn has not yet been sentenced, but he was arrested by federal marshals on Friday and will be detained, according to the court report.
He pleaded guilty to criminal interference with housing rights and a gun charge because he had guns while using regular marijuana, which is illegal in Indiana and federally.
“I wanted to make him miserable,” Hoehn said in an affidavit to the FBI about his neighbor.
Hoehn repeatedly denied being racist, but told investigators: “He’s a black man. Perfect opportunity, well. So yeah. I wrote a bunch of racial insults on a piece of board and put it there, “according to the document.
The FBI statement also said Hoehn told the agency he was upset about the Black Lives Matter protests in the country and attempts to remove statues – a clear reference to the pressure to take down the Confederate statues.
Hoehn walked around with a gun on his hip on June 18, and some construction workers said they were scared. The neighbor was so scared that he told family members to stay away and slept with a firearm.
A plea agreement does not set out any specific sentence that prosecutors will recommend. The U.S. Attorney’s Office says every charge Hoehn pleaded guilty to sentenced him to a maximum of ten years in prison.
