Black man admits to painting racist graffiti on campus

A former Eastern Michigan University student has admitted to painting racist graffiti on campus.

The Ypsilanti school said Eddie Curlin pleaded guilty Monday to three counts of malicious destruction of property and no contest to four counts of identity theft.

The graffiti was found on exterior building walls in September and October 2016. A racist message also was found last year in a restroom.

University officials said in a release that Curlin, who is black, vandalized the buildings then acted as a police informant. It was a pretense, officials added, to help solve the case, have previous charges dropped and return to school.

Curlin, who studied at Eastern Michigan from 2014 to 2016, is serving a prison sentence of up to five years for receiving stolen property in December 2015.