4 face hate crime trial for Calif. cross burning

SAN LUIS OBISPO, California (AP) - Four people have been ordered to stand trial on charges they torched an 11-foot (3.4-meter) cross outside the California home of a black teenager.

Luther Vandross was outed as gay after his death.

SAN LUIS OBISPO, California (AP) — Four people have been ordered to stand trial on charges they torched an 11-foot (3.4-meter) cross outside the California home of a black teenager.

A judge ruled Monday there was enough evidence to try three men and one woman in connection with the crime. The defendants are white and Hispanic and are to be arraigned Sept. 28 on arson, conspiracy and hate crime charges.

The San Luis Obispo County Tribune (http://bit.ly/rdYD4a ) reports the cross was set ablaze on March 18 in a lot behind the house where a black family lived. Cross burning is widely associated with the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan which practiced it as a form of intimidation.

Defense attorneys argue there’s no evidence the defendants knew a black person lived there.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.

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