A Mount Laurel, New Jersey, man, captured on video in 2021 harassing and intimidating his Black neighbors, has been sentenced to eight years in prison after taking a plea deal with the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office.
Edward Cagney Mathews pleaded with Superior Court judge Gerard H. Breland on Friday, Dec. 8, for a more lenient sentence, but his plea was unsuccessful. The judge issued a sentence specifying that Mathews must serve at least four years in prison before being eligible for parole.
With tears, he accepted responsibility for his actions before the court and offered an apology to those that he hurt with his “insensitive and disrespectful” rants and actions, all stemming from deeply ingrained racist beliefs.
He went on to express how his conduct caused shame and pain to his family and also led to the dissolution of his marriage. He said his wife filed for divorce and sold their townhome, and since being in jail for the last two-and-a-half years, he has lost all his belongings.
“Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future. I want to commit to rebuild the community,” Mathews said at the sentencing hearing, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
The sentencing comes after the 47-year-old pleaded guilty to four counts of bias intimidation and possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to distribute on Tuesday. Oct. 17. The footage, which went viral on social media, showed him verbally harassing his Black neighbors with racial slurs and spitting on him from his doorsteps, challenging them to “come see” him and calling some of them “monkeys.”
In addition to the verbal altercation, Mathews also put feces on his Black neighbors’ property, sent emails to the Black residents of the Essex Place condominium association, and shot BB gun pellets at their vehicles.
The man has been terrorizing his Black neighbors in the South Jersey community since 2020, according to the prosecution,…
Read the full article here
