Arkansas man admits placing dead animals on neighbor’s gravestone in plea deal

BENTONVILLE, Ark. (KNWA) --

An Arkansas man accused of leaving 16 dead animals on an old neighbor’s grave pleaded guilty on Monday.

Joseph Stroud, 79, agreed to a plea deal, lowering his charges from a felony to a misdemeanor. Stroud was given a one-year suspended sentence and will have to pay more than $2,500 in victim restitution.

Stroud was arrested on August 10, 2020, after he was caught on surveillance video dressed up in overalls and wearing a woman’s wig, placing dead animals on a headstone at the Pea Ridge Cemetery.

As part of the plea agreement, Stroud must also surrender his driver’s license because of his mental health.

Police said in 2020 Stroud caused more than $2,500 in damages to a former neighbor’s headstone by staining it with the blood of dead animals.

The suspect was wearing a teal and white woman’s jacket, sunglasses and a woman’s wig, according to the probable-cause affidavit, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported in 2020.

A family member of the deceased said she went to the grave site and found a dead possum on it and eight live baby possums inside one of the flower vases, the Democrat-Gazette reported. She said the family removed 16 dead animals from her grandfather’s grave, and one of the animals had left a brown stain on the tombstone after being draped over it.

The family member said Stroud was someone her grandparents knew, and they had farms next to each other for several years, according to the affidavit. She said there was a lawsuit between them, and she thought Stroud lost the case, according to the affidavit, the Democrat-Gazette reported.

"His wife is also buried at that cemetery," Stroud's defense attorney said in 2020. "As long as the case has been going on he's been unable to visit his wife's gravesite."