Tombstone tipper gets jail, probation

A 20-year-old Ira Township man will spend a year in the county jail and pay about $22,500 in restitution for his role in vandalizing 158 tombstones.

Wearing orange jail clothing and chains around his wrists, Christopher Wojciechowski apologized for tipping more than 150 tombstones in May.

“There is no excuse,” Wojciechowski told Circuit Judge Daniel Kelly. “It wasn’t planned. I was just drinking. I was drunk.”

Kelly sentenced Wojciechowski to one year in the county jail, with credit for 43 days served, and 18 months of probation.

During his probation, Wojciechowski must serve 400 hours of community service, preferably with the agencies and institutions that helped to right the vandalized cemeteries.

Wojciechowski also was ordered to pay about $22,500 in restitution.

Kelly called Wojciechowski’s actions “totally senseless.”

“What you did was a desecration of a sacred area in the community,” Kelly said. “You did not do what you did accidentally. You chose to do that.”

Clay Township police started an investigation May 30 after 158 headstones were overturned and damaged at Sacred Heart and St. Mary’s cemeteries on Church Road in Ira Township, according to a statement from the police department.

Some of the damaged headstones dated back to the 1800s.

Wojciechowski was arrested by New Baltimore Police Department in a separate incident and charged in the cemetery vandalism.

He pleaded guilty to malicious destruction of tombs and memorials, $20,000 or more — a 10-year felony — during a probable cause hearing June 17.

As part of his plea, Wojciechowski will testify against a second suspect in the vandalism, and his habitual third enhancement would be dismissed.

Wojciechowski’s lawyer, Randolph Martinek, said his client had a history of mental health issues, never graduated from high school, and was supported largely through social security.

Senior Assistant Prosecutor Jennifer Smith Deegan said a second suspect, 23-year-old Kevin Stachowiak, also has been charged in the vandalism.

Stachowiak’s probable cause conference is scheduled for July 22 in front of District Judge Cynthia Platzer.

“I really don’t know how or why anyone would do this,” Deegan said. “It’s just the most egregious crime.”

St. Clair County Prosecutor Michael Wendling has said Wojciechowski also was convicted of malicious destruction of property in Macomb County in August 2014, and assault with a dangerous weapon in Macomb County this April.

Wendling said Wojciechowski was detained by the New Baltimore Police Department June 8 for trespassing.

Contact Beth LeBlanc at (810) 989-6259, eleblanc@gannett.com, or on Twitter @THBethLeBlanc.