MONTGOMERY, Ala. - A former Ku Klux Klan leader has pleaded guilty for his role in a 2009 cross burning outside an Ozark neighborhood.

Twenty-eight-year-old Steven Joshua Dinkle entered a guilty plea in federal court Monday to obstruction of justice and conspiracy charges.

Federal prosecutors say Dinkle and another man built a 6-foot wooden cross and set it ablaze outside a predominantly African-American neighborhood.

Prosecutors say Dinkle initially lied about his involvement. He later admitted that he was trying to scare and intimidate the residents of the neighborhood.

Dinkle is the former exalted Cyclops of an Ozark chapter of the International Keystone Knights of the KKK.