PEORIA COUNTY, Ill. โ A Bellevue man has been sentenced to 18 months behind bars for shouting racial slurs and threatening to kill his Black neighbors last summer.
47-year-old Charles Gathard pleaded guilty to the felony hate crime charge in Peoria County Court on Tuesday. According to court documents, heโs getting credit for 157 days already served in the county jail.
Besides shouting slurs, Gathard threw sticks at his neighborsโ house, threatened to burn it down, and told them to โgo back to your villageโ on the night of Aug. 6, a Peoria County Sheriffโs Office report said.
Gathard reportedly told investigators he was drunk and didnโt remember what happened that night.
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