La. man accused of helping father hide body of KKK recruit pleads guilty to obstruction

La. man accused of helping in KKK killing pleads

COVINGTON, La. — A Louisiana man accused of helping his father hide the body of a Ku Klux Klan recruit pleaded guilty Thursday to obstruction of justice and was sentenced to three years in prison, according to a prosecutor’s spokesman.

Prosecutors believe Shane Foster, 21, also helped his father clean the camp site in rural St. Tammany Parish in southeastern Louisiana where Cynthia Lynch, 43, was shot to death in November 2008, district attorney’s office spokesman Rick Wood said.

Foster’s father, Raymond Foster, 45, is set for trial April 5 on a second-degree murder charge.

Authorities have said the Tulsa, Okla., woman was recruited over the Internet to join a Klan group led by the elder Foster. She was shot to death when she told said she wanted to leave an initiation rite and go home, authorities have said.

Not long after the killing, Lynch’s former lawyer described her as a lonely and troubled woman who might have sought a sense of belonging with the group.

Seven people were arrested initially but only four were indicted. Danielle Jones pleaded guilty in June to being an accessory after the fact and was sentenced to a year in prison. Frank Stafford pleaded guilty to obstruction and was sentenced to four years in April.

No deal was made for Foster’s plea, Wood said.

Questions of mental competence had complicated the prosecution of Shane Foster. He was declared competent to stand trial last November, but only after a judge ordered tutoring. A court-appointed forensic psychiatrist earlier in the year said that Foster was “mildly mentally retarded or a little above that” and didn’t understand the law or the difference between guilt and innocence.