Man charged in New Year's Day hate crime has case transferred

A Cape Girardeau man accused of a New Year's Eve hate crime had his case transferred Monday by Circuit Court Judge Benjamin F. Lewis to Perry County.

Lewis was assigned to preside over the case after Darrell Nice's attorney entered a motion for a change of judge early this month.

Nice is charged with first-degree property damage and property damage motivated by discrimination for allegedly spray-painting racial slurs on the home and vehicle belonging to a couple living on Alpine Drive in Cape Girardeau.

The couple, Frank and Sylvia Ellis, are black.

Profanity was also spray-painted on the Ellises' vehicle and a skull and crossbones was painted on a glass door on the back of the home.

Nice was connected to the crime after police officers matched the tread pattern of his tennis shoes to footprints around the victims' home.

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