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A rural Mountain Home man is in jail on four felony charges after brass vases taken from military grave markers at Galatia Cemetery were cut up and sold for scrap, Baxter County Sheriff John Montgomery said.
David Sutterfield Jr., 50, was booked into the Baxter County Detention Center on Thursday, Sept. 17, according to the jail roster. He is being held in lieu of a $15,000 bond.
The Sheriff’s Office took a report Sept. 7 that several vases were missing from headstones at the cemetery, which sits on Highway 5 South near Norfork. The vases were valued at an estimated $10,000.
The next day, investigators called a local recycling center to ask if any of the vases had been brought in for scrap. An employee said the center had received brass vases matching the description.
The center’s records showed Sutterfield was the person who brought them in, Montgomery said. The vases had been cut up before they arrived, and Sutterfield was paid $130 for the scrap.
Sutterfield is charged with desecration of burial grounds or burial furniture, defacing or damaging a public building or object of public respect, theft by receiving and first-degree criminal mischief. All four are felonies.
He also faces a misdemeanor count of criminal trespass and a habitual offender penalty enhancement. The jail roster lists a parole violation as well.
Montgomery said records show Sutterfield has been booked into the county jail at least 13 times since 2016 on a mix of felony and misdemeanor charges.
He is set to appear in Baxter County Circuit Court on Monday, Oct. 12.
The charges are accusations. Sutterfield is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
