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COLUMBIA - Former MU student Benjamin Elliot pleaded guilty to property damage in the second degree on Monday during a hearing at the Boone County courthouse. Elliot was charged with spray painting a racial slur on Hatch Hall. According to Boone County Assistant Prosecutor Ryan Haigh, Elliot will spend 90 days in the Boone County jail and has a two-year suspension of unsupervised probation under the conditions that he:

1. Pays restitution back to the University of Missouri
2. Completes 100 hours of community service
3. Reports all arrests
4. Has no law violations
5. Pays court costs and crime victim's compensation fund

County prosecutors did not pursue the hate crime charge against Elliot. A hate crime charge requires that acts be knowingly motivated by the race of the victim. In Elliot's case, Haigh said the University was the victim and the University doesn't have a race; therefore, the prosecutors office could not charge Elliot with a hate crime. Instead, Elliot faces a misdemeanor.