An Indiana County man has pleaded guilty to burning a cross that targeted a black teen living with a white foster family.

Twenty-one-year-old Kenneth Stiffey Jr., of Robinson, pleaded guilty Thursday and will be sentenced July 26 by a federal judge in Pittsburgh. A second man, 19-year-old Michael Bealonis, also of Robinson, Indiana County, pleaded guilty in February and is scheduled to be sentenced on May 25.

Mr. Stiffey had been free, but Senior U.S. District Judge Maurice Cohill Jr. jailed him Thursday after learning Mr. Stiffey tested positive for oxycodone -- an addictive prescription painkiller -- while awaiting his guilty plea.

A third man, 23-year-old Michael Bracken, of Bolivar, still faces charges in the Nov. 14, 2009, incident.

Authorities say all three burned a 6-foot cross on the lawn of Joe Walbeck, the foster parent of then 16-year-old Shaq Howard.

First Published: April 1, 2011, 1:45 p.m.