A 23-year-old man has been arrested in connection with vandalism of 15 headstones Oct. 23 at Camas Cemetery.
John H. Denton of Vancouver appeared Tuesday in Clark County Superior Court on suspicion of violating laws protecting cemeteries and second-degree malicious mischief. He is scheduled to be arraigned Feb. 28.
Judge John Nichols held Denton on $10,000 bail and appointed Vancouver attorney Gerry Wear to defend him.
The vandalism damaged headstones in the oldest part of the cemetery, known as the Pioneer Section. Some of the headstones were broken or toppled over.
Two days later, Michael D. Garwood, 21, of Camas was arrested in connection with the vandalism, but charges weren’t filed because prosecutors said they needed more evidence. He remains a suspect in the crimes, said Camas police Sgt. Scot Boyles.
Denton is accused of vandalizing the headstones after a night of drinking with four friends. The group was drinking at a house in Camas when they decided to go for a walk, according to a court affidavit.
During the walk, one of the friends said she wanted to see her grandparents’ grave at the Camas Cemetery, 630 N.E. Oak St. The group of five entered the cemetery, where two of the friends — Denton and Garwood — separated from the rest of the group, according to the affidavit. They later rejoined the other three, who had gathered around the grandparents’ grave, the affidavit says.
One witness told Camas police that Garwood was holding a piece of a broken headstone and threw it on the grandparents’ grave, according to the affidavit.
Denton fled to Seattle after the incident, Deputy Prosecutor Rebecca Ward said Tuesday. He confessed to the crimes in a Facebook chat with a female friend, according to court documents. According to the friend, Denton wrote that he was drunk at the time of the incident, the court records say.
The vandalism touched some members of the community and prompted them to replace one headstone, which had been destroyed. The headstone belonged to Swiss immigrant Alexander Stuber, who died at age 41 in 1908.
Most of the gravestones were pushed off their base, so crews put them upright the next morning, said Ed Senchyna, the cemetery’s senior grounds maintenance worker. Stuber’s marker, however, was smashed beyond repair. With no known living relatives to replace his headstone, his grave would have been left unmarked, Senchyna said. Instead, community members donated money to the Friends of the Camas Cemetery to cover the $1,000 cost of replacing the stone.
According to the 1900 census, Stuber was unmarried and worked as a laborer at a sulfite mill, which made pulp for paper. He could read, write and speak English, and he owned his own house.
