A Mississippi man has been sentenced to 42 years in prison for a federal hate crime after burning a cross to intimidate a black family in Gulfport in 2020.

Axel Cox, a Harrison County resident, violated the Fair Housing Act when he used threatening and racially derogatory language toward his Black neighbors and burned a cross to intimidate them on Dec. 3, 2020, according to court documents.

Cox, 24, was sentenced before U.S. District Judge Halil S. Ozerden and was ordered to pay $7,810 in restitution and to serve three years of supervision following his release from his prison sentence.

According to documents, after a dispute with the Black family victims, Cox wedged two pieces of wood together to form a cross, placed it in clear view of the victims’ residence, doused it in oil and set it alight. During this incident, Cox yelled threats and racial slurs toward the occupants of the house. Cox admitted that he lit the cross on fire because the victims were Black and that he intended to scare them into moving out of the neighborhood.

“This cross burning was an abhorrent act that used a traditional symbol of hatred and violence to stoke fear and drive a Black family out of their home,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

“While one might think cross-burnings and white supremacist threats and violence are things of the past, the unfortunate reality is that these incidents continue today. This sentence demonstrates the importance of holding people accountable for threatening the safety and security of Black people in their homes because of the color of their skin or where they are from.”

Cox was indicted by a federal grand jury on Sept. 20, 2022. Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea Cabell Jones for the Southern District of Mississippi and former Trial Attorney Noah Coakley II of the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section prosecuted the case.