Local resident sentenced for racial intimidation

Offender to receive two-year sentence; ethnic attacks rare, prosecutor says

By: Maria Schmitt

Posted: 4/23/09

Hillsdale resident Robert Shelton, 28, received a minimum two-year prison sentence during his trial on April 13.

Shelton pleaded no contest to his physical and verbal assault of Hillsdale College junior Christian Campbell.

On the night of Sept. 28, 2008, Campbell was walking home and crossed through the backyard of 228 N. Manning St. Shelton confronted Campbell, shouting at him to get out of his yard. He then punched Campbell, who ran. Campbell lost a shoe and when he went back to retrieve it, Shelton punched Campbell again and shouted racial slurs at him.

An original trial date set for early January got pushed back because not all necessary parties could attend that day, Hillsdale County Prosecutor Neal Brady said.

"I'm definitely glad he got time," Campbell said. "I wish he got longer.

Shelton was under the influence of alcohol on the night of the attack, which broke the parole he received for shoplifting, Brady said.

"Technically, he shouldn't have been in the yard," Brady said.

Shelton pled no contest, which basically equates to pleading guilty, Brady said. The different plea does not require the defendant to describe the incident in his own words. The judge simply uses established documents to determine the facts of the crime - in this case, the original police report.

Shelton will serve his prison time at a facility determined by the Michigan Department of Corrections.

Campbell said he is glad the ethnic charge will be on Shelton's record.

"Everyone will know that when he gets to jail," he said.

Brady said in the last 12 years, only one or two cases involving ethnic intimidation has occurred in Hillsdale County.

"The fact that I see it so rarely is an indication that it was random and that, unfortunately for Christian, he came upon an idiot at the wrong time," Brady said.

Defense attorney David Goldstein, who works out of Ann Arbor, was unavailable for comment.