UPDATE: Cemetery vandal pleads guilty

Published 9:58 am Thursday, December 13, 2012

Sixty-one headstones were vandalized at Riverside Cemetery.

CASSOPOLIS — A 19-year-old Dowagiac man pleaded guilty Wednesday to three felony charges for conspiring to damage more than 60 headstones at Riverside Cemetery Dec. 2.

The Cass County Prosecutor’s office said Enos Butrick pleaded guilty to conspiracy of malicious destruction of tombs and memorials, malicious destruction of tombs and memorials and malicious destruction of personal property. All charges carry a maximum sentence of five years in jail.

Dowagiac City Manager Kevin Anderson estimated damage to the cemetery at $20,000.

“Staff is working diligently to reposition and make repairs,” said Anderson at Monday’s city council meeting. “However, some headstones cannot be fully repaired.”

Some of the broken headstones date as far back as the 1800s.

Butrick and co-defendant Clayton Warren, 23, of Marcellus, were arrested last week.

Warren is scheduled to appear in Cass County Circuit Court on Dec. 19. He is charged with conspiracy to commit malicious destruction of tombs and memorials between $1,000 and $20,000, malicious destruction of tombs and memorials, conspiracy to commit false report of a felony and filing a false report of a felony.