An Arkansas man accused of leaving dead animals on a neighbor’s gravestone pleaded guilty Monday.
Joseph Alan Stroud, 79, of Pea Ridge, agreed to a plea deal, which lowered his charge of defacing objects of public respect from a felony to a misdemeanor, KNWA reported.
Stroud was arrested on Aug. 10, 2020. He admitted damaging a burial monument by repeatedly placing dead animals on the gravestone of a former neighbor, Fred Allen McKinney, between May 31 and July 31 in the Pea Ridge Cemetery, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.
After noticing various dead animals on the headstone, McKinney’s family was given permission by the cemetery to set up surveillance cameras, according to KNWA.
Stroud was arrested after the cameras caught him leaving a dead animal on top of the tombstone and walking back to a gray Dodge Journey, according to court documents. Stroud was wearing a teal-and-white woman’s jacket, sunglasses and a woman’s wig, according to the affidavit.
Shannon Nobles, McKinney’s granddaughter, told the court that she was jogging one day and saw Stroud drive away from the cemetery, the Democrat-Gazette reported. She went to the gravesite and found a dead opossum on it and eight live baby opossums inside one of the flower vases, the newspaper reported.
According to court documents, Benton County Circuit Judge Robin Green asked Stroud why he placed the dead animals on McKinney’s grave.
>> 78-year-old Arkansas man arrested after placing dead animals on headstone of former neighbor
McKinney was a farmer and he enjoyed animals, Stroud answered.
“I done it for his behalf to show him the animals were still here and everything like that,” Stroud told the judge. “He just enjoyed animals and that there was more of a … a beauty than flowers and stuff.”
Green wondered why Stroud would wear a disguise if he was honoring his neighbor.
“It was to agitate the people looking at me and following me around,” Stroud said, according to court documents. “I done it to upset them because my car was there and my license tag was there, and they knew it was me. I done it just to agitate them because I knew they were checking on me and stuff.”
Stroud’s attorney, Alison Lee, said a neurologist had examined Stroud and diagnosed him with vascular dementia, the Democrat-Gazette reported.
McKinney’s family agreed to the plea deal as long as their relative’s headstone was replaced.
“They will have to replace the headstone because of the blood and guts,” Benton County deputy prosecutor Tyler Hawkins told the court. “It’s permanently stained.”
