Linda Ober / The Citizen

Story:

FLEMING -- Matthew Panarisi's voice broke as he looked at his parents' headstone lying face-up on the grass.

"I feel bad enough to cry," said Panarisi, who with his wife Nancy, visited St. Joseph's Cemetery in the town of Fleming Monday afternoon, unaware that more than 50 monuments and statues had been vandalized earlier that morning. "Those were the greatest two people on Earth."

Nearby, downed monuments scattered the cemetery landscape. In some rows, several headstones were pushed over. In others, none were touched.

One lay with what appeared to be a face-down Jesus statue, an American flag trapped beneath. Another had a planter crushed beneath its massive weight, the potted soil and flowers spilling out onto the grass.

Sheriff's deputies have arrested and charged Adam C. Warner, 26, of 115 Washington St., Auburn, with the felonies of second-degree criminal mischief and first-degree cemetery desecration, as well as with the misdemeanor of criminal trespass in the third degree.

In total, 53 monuments or statues were damaged, according to cemetery administrator Mitchell Fanning.

Fanning said that the sheriff's office awoke him around 5 a.m. Monday to tell him about the vandalism. It appears the perpetrator started toppling stones in one of the cemetery's older sections, he said.

"(He) continued sporadically toppling either statues on the tops of monuments or the monuments themselves," Fanning said.

The incident occurred between 1 and 2:30 a.m. Monday, according to Cayuga County Sheriff Rob Outhouse. The monuments involved are located in a path from Sand Beach Road on the cemetery's south side northeasterly to Lake Avenue.

Sheriff's deputies were first alerted to the incident by the Auburn Police Department and area residents who were dealing with Warner, who had sustained a finger injury whereby he was missing the end of his right middle finger, Outhouse said.

At that time, there was some indication Warner had been involved with the cemetery incident, and deputies followed a trail of blood leading to a partial finger severed by stone markers crashing together in the cemetery, Outhouse said, noting that Warner "certainly showed signs of intoxication and admittedly had been drinking."

Warner underwent surgery in Syracuse and will be arraigned in Town of Fleming Court. He is expected to be remanded to the sheriff's custody for further proceedings.

For more on this story, read Tuesday's Citizen