Third suspect in cemetery vandalism in court
(Archived article @ Newsbank)
Brian Smith ~ The Richmond Register ~ 6/3/2010
RICHMOND — The third person charged in connection with the destruction of approximately 150 grave markers in the Richmond Cemetery also will face a grand jury.
Sara Elizabeth Smart, 20, of Waco, saw charges of violating graves and second-degree criminal trespass sent to a grand jury following a preliminary hearing in Madison District Court.
Smart is charged along with two other people, 25-year-old Joseph Dewayne Combs, of Altamont Street, and William Damien Gross, 19, of Keri Ann Drive, in connection with the April 3 incident.
Combs and Gross waived their rights to a preliminary hearing May 19.
Detective Matt Boyle of the Richmond Police Department testified Wednesday about how Smart became a suspect in his investigation.
Boyle said all three suspects admitted that after a night of drinking at the Cherry Pit, they went to the cemetery to continue drinking.
Gross and Combs both claimed that all three were involved in the destruction of the grave markers, some of which dated back to before the Civil War.
Boyle told Smart’s attorney, Jimmy Dale Williams, that in a May 12 interview at the Jackson County Detention Center, Smart had told a similar story but said Combs and Gross were responsible for the destruction.
Smart was lodged in Jackson County on unrelated charges when Richmond police located her, Chief Larry Brock said last month after her arrest.
Madison District Judge Brandy O. Brown found probable cause following the hearing to send the case on to a grand jury for possible indictment.
Smart remains free on a partially secured $10,000 bond.
Brian Smith may be reached at bsmith@richmondregister.com or at 624-6694. For breaking news, follow Brian at www.twitter.com/RR_BSmith.
Martin County police are investigating the apparent removal of a fetus from one grave and the disturbance of another plot in a family cemetery on the Kentucky -West Virginia border.
"It's sick," said Martin County Sheriff Darriel Young. "I don't know why anybody would want to do something like that."
Young said the grave of "Baby Evans," a 41/2-month-old fetus who was miscarried in March, was dug up in the Dempsey family cemetery in Warfield, a small community about 10 miles east of Inez.
The parents, Jerry and Margaret Evans of Lovely, had placed the fetus in a shoebox and buried it about 18 inches in the ground, Young said.
They could not be reached yesterday.
A visitor to the cemetery discovered June 28 that the grave had been dug up.
"It's empty. The dirt is out of it and everything," Young said.
In addition, earth on the grave of Carl Fitzpatrick, who died during surgery at age 19 in 1941, appears to have been dug up and then replaced, Young said.
It is not known whether Fitzpatrick's remains are intact.
"I'd say it's just a bunch of kids doing a prank, but you can never be too sure about these things until you do a full investigation," said Martin County Coroner Rex Endicott.
Young said no arrests have been made, but his office is treating the incident as a criminal investigation. Fitzpatrick's family wants to exhume his body and move it to a Martin County location where they can keep a closer eye on the plot, said Anna Francis Perry, 74, one of four surviving sisters.
"I tell you, I can't put it into words," Perry said, her voice breaking. "It's a hard thing to deal with."
Bill Phelps of Phelps Funeral Home in Inez said he has sought permits from the state Department of Vital Statistics that would allow him to disinter, transport and re-inter Fitzpatrick's remains in the new location next week.
Some Martin Countians wonder whether the occult is involved. Young said a discarded couch in the cemetery was spray-painted with a pentagram, a five-pointed satanic symbol. In addition, the phrases "Turn your back on God" and "Anton lives" - an apparent reference to Church of Satan founder Anton Szandor LeVay, who died last year - were spray-painted on the couch.
Rick Roberts, a Paintsville paralegal who monitors occult activity, said a different grave near Warfield was robbed in 1992. Several of those buried in that cemetery were Hungarian miners who had come to work in the Kentucky coalfields, Roberts said. Phelps said the Dempsey cemetery has about 120 graves, some a century old.
He couldn't say what the motive for grave robbery would be.
"Who would know?" Phelps said. "How could you get into somebody's mind?"