This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A 71-year-old Hurricane man pleaded guilty Tuesday to a federal crime for writing threatening letters to neighbors in a housing complex after an African-American male moved in with a family there.
Robert Keller admitted that he sent a threatening note to the interracial family that was living in Quail Lake Estates in Hurricane after the brother of the woman moved in with her and her husband.
Keller faces up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine after admitting he violated the Fair Housing Act by writing a threatening letter left at the complex's clubhouse that used the n-word, though it was misspelled.
"If I catch that [n-word] around my daughter, I'll kill the ass h- and then come find what stupid person brought him here in the first place," the letter said.
A second charge against him concerned another threatening note left on a vehicle. That charge was dropped after he pleaded guilty to sending the first one.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Evelyn J. Furse set sentencing for Dec. 1.
Keller still faces a misdemeanor charge of harassment in state court in St. George.