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On Halloween of 2012, a 6-foot wooden cross was set on fire in the front yard of an interracial couple鈥攁 black man and a white woman鈥攍iving in Port Richey, a suburb of Tampa, Florida.

The man previously had received death threats and was called a 鈥渘-----鈥� and assaulted鈥攁t one point beaten unconscious, court documents say.

The perpetrators, the documents say, hoped the cross burning鈥攁 hallmark of the Ku Klux Klan鈥攚ould instill fear and drive the couple from their neighborhood.

A senior Justice Department official called the incident a 鈥渧iolent act of hate.鈥�

Five years later, after Pasco County sheriff鈥檚 detective and FBI agents interviewed 鈥渄ozens of witnesses in an exhaustive investigation,鈥� three suspects have pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiring to 鈥渢hreaten, intimidate, and interfere with the interracial couple鈥檚 enjoyment of their housing rights.鈥�

The case became protracted when a cooperating witness鈥攖he man who provided the wood to build the cross鈥攕uddenly died in June 2015. Another complication came when one of the suspects provided a false alibi during the course of the FBI investigation, court documents disclose.

On the eve of going to trial, William A. Dennis, 56, of Port Richey, pleaded guilty on Tuesday, April 4 in U.S. District Court in Tampa to the federal conspiracy charge.

Two other co-conspirators, Thomas H. Sigler, III, 45, and Pascual Carlos Pietri, 55, both of Port Richey, previously pleaded guilty to the same charge.

Pietri is currently serving a 37-month prison term for his involvement. Sigler and Dennis await sentencing.

W. Stephen Muldrow, the acting U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida, said Dennis鈥� guilty plea 鈥渦nderscores our ongoing commitment to aggressively investigate and prosecute individuals who commit hate crimes.鈥�

At Justice Department headquarters in Washington, D.C., where a civil rights criminal prosecutor was assigned to the Florida case, Acting Assistant Attorney General Tom Wheeler also commented on its protracted resolution.

Dennis and his co-conspirators鈥� 鈥渞acially-fueled actions to threaten and intimidate a couple in their own home and neighborhood are reprehensible and will not be tolerated in our communities,鈥� Wheeler said. 鈥淭he Justice Department is committed to vigorously prosecuting those who engage in such violent acts of hate.鈥�

Court documents say Sigler and Dennis lived across the street on Seward Drive from the targets of the cross-burning, including the African-American man identified in public records as 鈥淒.M.鈥�

Both defendants 鈥渉ad repeatedly engaged in racially hateful verbal exchanges with D.M., calling [him] a 鈥榥-----鈥� and threatening to 鈥榞et him,鈥欌�� the documents say.

Other neighbors witnessed the defendants鈥� racial animosity and verbal abuse directed at D.M., with one witness describing the hatred as 鈥渁n obsession.鈥�

鈥淛ust three weeks before the cross burning, defendant Sigler physically attacked D.M. in the street 鈥� yelling threats at D.M. such as, 鈥業鈥檓 going to get you, you f------ n-----鈥� while beating D.M. to unconsciousness on the pavement,鈥� the court documents say.

鈥淒ennis, who stood by and encouraged Sigler in the attack, tried to prevent a neighbor from intervening to help D.M.,鈥� they say. 鈥淭he defendants hated D.M. because of his race and were determined to drive him out of the neighborhood. The harassment escalated from verbal abuse to physical assaults and threats to D.M.鈥檚 life.鈥�

On Halloween evening of 2012, a participant identified in court documents only as 鈥淛.S.鈥�  threw a small party in his driveway where several residents, including the suspects, gathered to drink beer and other types of alcohol.

鈥淎s the party came to an end, sometime after 10:30 p.m., the conspirators constructed a cross and burned it in the victims鈥� yard,鈥� the court documents say.

鈥淭he evidence bears out that the defendants were the ring-leaders of the conspiracy, 鈥楯.S.鈥� provided the wood used to build the cross, and Pietri lit the cross on fire at the direction of the [co-conspirators],鈥� the documents say.

The FBI subsequently identified and questioned multiple eyewitnesses who placed the defendants at the party and one witness who saw the cross after it was built from wood in J.S.鈥檚 backyard.

After 鈥淛.S.鈥� began cooperating with the FBI and agreed to a consent search, agents retrieved similar wood from his backyard, the documents say.

鈥淚f the defendants鈥� language did not make this motive clear enough, the defendants chose 鈥榓n age old symbol of racism鈥� for their final threatening act of intimidation,鈥� they say.

鈥淗istorical experience indicates that the burning of a cross on or near the property of an African American constitutes a threat to use force, and is inextricably connected with the race, particularly African Americans,鈥� according to the documents.