OUT OF ORDER
I was fined and given a jail sentence for putting flowers on my fiancée’s grave – it’s a total disgrace
A MAN has been fined and handed a jail sentence for putting flowers on his fiancée’s grave.
Winston "Winchester" Hagans was convicted of littering on June 9 after repeatedly laying planters at the grave site of Hannah Ford in Auburn, Alabama.
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Ford was killed in a car crash in January 2021 – just a month after she and Hagans got engaged.
Hagans put planter boxes at her grave – something which her dad Reverend Tom Ford reportedly didn’t approve of.
Ford also claimed that his daughter didn’t tell him about the engagement, The reports.
He testified in court that 10 boxes had been placed on the grave since May 2021.
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He said he had either thrown the planters away or returned them to Hagans.
Ford told the court: “The first box, when I saw where it was, I picked it up and it fell apart.
“It was a rotten piece of wood with some pictures on it, so I discarded it.”
Ford said he removed a box from the gravesite in June of that year.
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When he found a fourth planter, he claimed that he had told a friend to give it back to Hagans.
He told the court that he instructed his pal to warn Hagans not to put any more planters on the site.
Ford then discovered a fifth box and claimed that Hagans put it back on the grave.
He then filed a criminal complaint in January 2022 after finding boxes seven, eight, and nine.
Ford claimed in court that a tenth box was put by the gravestone in the period between the complaint being filed and cops making an arrest.
City prosecutor Justin Clark said legislation means items such as boxes are banned from being placed at a gravestone in a cemetery.
Hagans’ defense team argued that the boxes were not litter.
'RULING ON LAW AND FACTS'
But, Judge Jim McLaughlin said the boxes were a “clear case of violation of this deed and violation of littering statute”.
He said: “The box does not occur naturally in nature. It is a foreign substance. Whether it’s pretty or not is not a consideration for this court.”
McLaughlin said he has to “rule on the law and facts”, not “what’s nice or what’s moral”.
Hagans was found guilty of one count of criminal littering.
He was handed a 30-day jail sentence that’s suspended on the condition that he doesn’t put any more flowers at the grave.
He was also given a $50 fine and $251 in court costs.
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His defense attorney Jeff Tickal plans to file a written appeal within 14 days.
If the appeal is granted, the case will go to the Lee County Circuit Court for a new trial.
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