photo by: Kansas Department of Corrections

Jonathan Lee Stewart

A man was charged Tuesday in Douglas County District Court with multiple counts of desecration of a grave in connection with damage at Clinton Cemetery in December.

The man, Jonathan Lee Stewart, 22, of Carbondale, faces 20 counts of criminal desecration by recklessly destroying a grave, which is a low-level felony, according to charging documents from the court.

The charges relate to an incident on Dec. 8, when 13 headstones were spray-painted, four graves had vases broken or removed, two memorial plaques were broken and a memorial bench was broken, said George Diepenbrock with the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office.

photo by: Courtesy of Clinton Cemetery board

Damaged grave sites are pictured in Clinton Cemetery in Douglas County. The marker on the left is 111 years old.

Deputies became aware of the damage to the cemetery after an investigation into a burglary and automobile theft in the 90 block of North 300 Road. Deputies had responded to a report of a stolen vehicle and while they were interviewing the resident of the home, a man ran from an outbuilding and another man then drove one of the resident’s vehicles out of another outbuilding, Diepenbrock said.

The man on foot dove into the window of the fleeing vehicle, and deputies pursued the vehicle into a nearby field. The vehicle got stuck in the field, and deputies took the two men into custody. A third man was later arrested after he was found hiding on the property by deputies who were investigating the scene, Diepenbrock said.

Jeffery Warren Ard, 41, Topeka, and Eli John McCormick, 23, of Overbrook, were arrested along with Stewart. The three men were each charged with one felony count of theft and one felony count of burglary at that time, according to court records. Each man was given a $5,000 bond. Ard bonded out the next day while Stewart and McCormick bonded out months later.

Deputies later found a vehicle that was reported to have been driven by the suspects, a black Ford truck, parked near Clinton Cemetery, 1203 East 500 Road. In the bed of the truck deputies found vases that looked like they belonged to nearby grave sites. Upon further investigation at the cemetery, they found the spray-painted headstones and damaged memorials, Diepenbrock said.

When investigators questioned the suspects about the damaged cemetery, one of them alleged that one of the other suspects had damaged the cemetery because he was mad that the truck had broken down, Diepenbrock said.

The Clinton Cemetery’s Board estimated the cost of repairs at $12,800 to $27,800, Diepenbrock said.

Ard was convicted of one count of theft in connection with the incident in April and was sentenced to 13 months in prison, suspended to 12 months of probation, and was ordered to pay $125 a month toward more than $11,000 in restitution to the victim, according to court records.

McCormick pleaded no contest to one count of theft in June and is scheduled to be sentenced on July 26, according to court records.

Stewart was scheduled for a plea hearing on July 1 for the burglary and theft charges, but court records do not show the results of that hearing. He is next scheduled in court for the criminal desecration charges on July 11. He was released Tuesday on a $100 own-recognizance bond, according to the jail booking log.

Stewart has multiple drug convictions in Shawnee County, according to Kansas Department of Corrections records.

— Editor’s note: This story has been corrected to clarify which vehicle was reportedly stolen.