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A black man who staged a hate crime to boost the campaign of a black mayoral candidate in Colorado Springs was sentenced to 46 months in prison on Wednesday.
Derrick Bernard, 36, and two co-conspirators, Ashley Blackcloud, and Deanna West, were convicted last May of “conspiring to threaten or convey false information about a threat” by staging a fake hate crime against mayoral candidate Yemi Mobolade in 2023, where they wrote “nigger” on a campaign sign and burned a cross, filming and taking photos of the incident before spreading false information blaming his opponent for the crime.
“Evidence presented at trial demonstrated that ten days before the cross burning, Bernard sent a message to the threatened candidate in which he explained he was ‘mobilizing my squad in defense. Black ops style big brother’ and then immediately texted co-defendant Ashley Blackcloud, ‘I got a plan,'” the US Department of Justice wrote in a case update Wednesday.
“After the burning occurred, Bernard and Blackcloud then worked together to send an email to the candidate, media outlets, and other local, state, and national organizations. Attached to the email was a short video of the cross burning and a still photograph,” the DOJ wrote, adding, “The defendants then worked together to maliciously convey false information about the cross burning via social media platforms. “
The incident happened just three weeks before a run-off election, which Mobolade went on to win, becoming the city’s first black mayor.
Mobolade has denied having any knowledge of the incident, saying that he didn’t know Bernard, a local activist, was behind the crime during his interactions with him.
A prosecutor slammed Bernard and his two accomplices’ terroristic threats during closing arguments, saying, “They could’ve done a number of things. They could’ve used their radio station or a podcast…What they chose to do is send a threat out to the world.”
Bernard reportedly “owned the Colorado Springs radio station The Slide, which played eclectic music,” according to Colorado Public Radio News.
On Tuesday, Mayor Mobolade released a statement praising the sentencing, saying,
What happened was intentional, calculated, and deeply disturbing. The actions carried out by Mr. Bernard caused real harm; not only to my family, but to others as well. It was meant to intimidate, to divide, and to instill fear; something no family should ever have to endure, and, as Judge Rodriguez noted in her ruling, it also sought to disrupt and undermine our local democratic process.
The Daily Mail reports: “Bernard received the sentence while serving time for a separate crime. He was convicted in 2024 of orchestrating the killing of a man named William Underwood, who went by the stage name FYL Jackk.”
Blackcloud was sentenced in January to 366 days in federal prison, while West received a three-year probation sentence.
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