White Man Is Sentenced in Racial Attack : Shooting: He is given seven years in federal prison for wounding a black woman after making racial slurs.

A white San Bernardino County man was sentenced Thursday to seven years in federal prison for violating the civil rights of a black neighbor by shooting her with a high-powered rifle after making a racial slur.

U.S. District Judge J. Spencer Letts in Los Angeles imposed the sentence on Gary Dean McInnis, 39, of Hesperia, who was convicted in August of using force to interfere with the housing rights of Oleatha Kellar, 63. He was also convicted of using a firearm during a violent crime.

The case is the first successful felony prosecution of its kind in the federal court’s seven-county Central District, which comprises most of Southern California.

Prosecutors said McInnis fired shots from a high-powered rifle across an empty lot at Kellar’s house last January after commenting to an acquaintance that he did not like black people. Kellar was standing in the kitchen and was struck in the abdomen by a bullet.

San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies investigating the shooting found in McInnis’ garage workshop black figures hanging from nooses, swastikas and a wooden sign suggesting that all blacks be “executed.”

Another of Kellar’s neighbors heard McInnis shouting racial slurs before he fired the shots, Kellar said.

Neither McInnis nor his lawyer could be reached for comment.

Kellar, a former resident of the San Fernando Valley community of Pacoima who has been disabled for years with diabetes and other ailments, moved to Hesperia two years ago and shares the home with her sister. Her house and McInnis’ are separated by the empty lot.

Hesperia, located 20 miles north of San Bernardino, is one of the fastest-growing cities in California. Its population, which is 94% white, has surged from 5,000 in 1970 to 49,818 today, according to the most recent Census estimates, with increasing numbers of blacks and Latinos.

In a telephone interview, Kellar said she had not been the victim of any racial incident in Hesperia before the shooting, and had not seen McInnis until he made a court appearance.

She believes, however, that resentment about blacks living in the town might have prompted McInnis’ action.

“They are very prejudiced here,” Kellar said. She added, however, that some of her white neighbors were kind to her after she was shot and one sent her flowers.

Recently, however, there have been two incidents that she believes were racially motivated.

Two weeks ago, Kellar said, two white men who looked as if they had been drinking, rang her doorbell and said they wanted to talk about a “personality contest.” Their comments seemed to make no sense, she recalled. Later that evening, she said, she heard someone shouting racial slurs outside her house.

On Thanksgiving Eve, Kellar said, someone shot at her sister near their home. Kellar said she reported both incidents to authorities.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Elana S. Artson, who prosecuted McInnis, would not say whether her office is looking into the reports.

“I can say nothing about recent incidents,” she said.

Not everyone in Hesperia shares Kellar’s opinion that the town is prejudiced.

“I disagree with that. We’re the same as anyone else,” said Sgt. Pat Dailey, a supervisor with the Hesperia Police Department and a resident for 15 years. “We have incidents where people get into name-calling because they are angry but I don’t recall any hate crimes other than this.

“We did have a member of the Ku Klux Klan but we arrested him and he’s gone.”

McInnis has been in custody for months at the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles. State charges had been filed against him, but were dropped after local authorities discovered possible violations of Kellar’s civil rights and referred the matter to federal investigators.

While prosecutors said they were pleased with Thursday’s sentence, Kellar was not.

“I’m glad that they didn’t let him out” of jail, she said, “but I don’t really think he got enough time. He was shooting at our house. I could have been killed.”

Asked if she was thinking about moving out of Hesperia, she replied:

“This is our home. I intend to stay.”