Updated 4:25 p.m.

An Oregon State University graduate student with ties to white nationalists in the Pacific Northwest and a history of bigoted behavior was convicted Thursday of plastering racist bumper stickers on the cars of social justice activists outside a Corvallis food co-op.

Benton County Circuit Court Judge David Connell found Andrew Oswalt, 28, guilty of all criminal counts stemming from the incident that surfaced while Oswalt served as a student government representative.

Prosecutors had charged the Ph.D. candidate in chemistry with three counts of first-degree intimidation, a felony hate crime under Oregon statute, as well as two counts of third-degree criminal mischief, a misdemeanor.

"The impact of his actions goes beyond the vehicles and individuals he targeted," said Ryan Joslin, the prosecuting attorney for Benton County. "His intent was to terrorize an entire community."

Oswalt, who has no prior criminal convictions, will be sentenced Dec. 12, records show. Based on sentencing guidelines he could face a maximum of 90 days in jail.

"Appealing this decision is a certainty," Nicolas Ortiz, Oswalt's attorney, told The Oregonian/OregonLive.

The trial's conclusion caps an episode that outraged students and staff at Oregon's largest university and rattled residents of the liberal college town.

As the criminal case against Oswalt materialized, so did revelations about his prior racist activity and associations with reputed white nationalists.

According to prosecutors, Oswalt and an accomplice placed bumper stickers that contained a racist slur for African Americans on two cars at the First Alternative Natural Foods Co-Op in June 2017.

The vehicles belonged to members of the Corvallis chapter of Showing Up for Racial Justice, which had held a meeting at the co-op that day to discuss ways to combat white supremacy and those promoting racist or bigoted views in the area.

A co-op employee also discovered someone had placed anti-Semitic leaflets on the windshields of every car in the staff parking lot at the same time.

Police executed a search warrant at Oswalt's house in January and recovered bumper stickers and fliers matching those used in the incident, authorities said at the time.

Oswalt was identified in surveillance video captured by the food co-op, according to police, and was eventually taken into custody. The second suspect was never identified by authorities.

His arrest came hours after OSU's student newspaper published an interview in which Oswalt — then serving as a graduate representative on the school's student government — self-identified as a member of the "alt-right" and outlined his inflammatory views on women and minorities.

Over the next week, details emerged that Oswalt had previously marched with white power groups in Portland, palled around with people who called for the extermination of Jews, and kept a Confederate flag hanging in the window of a residence across the street from OSU's black cultural center.

In February, OSU students voted to recall Oswalt from his student government post. University spokesman Steve Clark on Thursday said Oswalt remains a student at Oregon State.

Clark added that the university has policies to allow people convicted of felonies to apply for and be enrolled in classes. As well, the school's Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards evaluate conviction cases of current students and can determine whether possible sanctions, including suspension or expulsion, are warranted, he said.

"We will continue to monitor Mr. Oswalt's court proceedings closely, including his upcoming sentencing," Clark said.

-- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh

skavanaugh@oregonian.com

503-294-7632 || @shanedkavanaugh