A Kentucky woman will spend the next decade under the supervision of the American justice system after spray painting the N-word in her neighbors’ driveway and sending them hateful letters.
Suzanne Craft, 55, from Louisville, has been sentenced to nine years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release after being charged by federal authorities.
During a jury trial in March, Craft was found guilty of five counts of mailing threatening communications. The jury determined that she targeted her neighbors because of their race.
“This sentence sends a clear message regarding our commitment to ending hate-motivated violence and threats of violence,” said assistant attorney general Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “There is no room in civilized society for violent threats based on race. We hope that this result brings some measure of peace to victims who had to suffer through the defendant’s terrifying threats of racial violence.”
According to the Louisville Courier-Journal, cameras in front of Michaela and Connie Pineda’s home showed her painting the N-word and a swastika in their driveway three times. She also sent them mail that contained violent and racial messages between November and December 2020.
The anonymous letters had racist slurs and bullets in them, the couple’s attorney Vanessa Cantley, told The Courier-Journal in 2020.
“She also threatened their child on a bicycle this past summer and threatened to run her over, ” Cantley said in November 2020.
The family was granted a no-contact order against Craft in July. She was previously charged by the state with criminal mischief and harassing communications. She was found guilty of contempt of court twice since then for violating the order, The Courier-Journal reports. She spent a week in jail and another on house arrest.
