“I am really sorry to hear about that,” said Patricia Benoit, managerial consultant for Hillcrest Cemetery in Temple, where 65 headstones were vandalized.
Gameson, 20, of Moody, is being held in Bell County Jail on $40,000 bail. He is scheduled to have a court hearing on Tuesday at which the revocation charges will be announced. A separate hearing, which has not been set yet, is required to determine if the allegations that he violated his probation are valid.
The criminal mischief charge is related to an incident that happened around Sept. 22, according to court documents. Gameson is charged with damaging or destroying a video card from a digital video recorder.
A man identified by court documents as the owner of the property said the DVR was actually the property of CEFCO Convenience Stores.
Gameson told the man he and another man stole the DVR but later returned it, according to court documents. When the item was returned, its video card was damaged. The estimated cost to repair it was $999.
Gameson was arrested on the charge on Dec. 20, 2008, but was bailed out of jail on Dec. 24. His bail was $2,500.
He was later arrested on a charge he violated his probation. He has been in the Bell County Jail Annex since Feb. 3.
In addition to the misdemeanor charge, Gameson is $8,960 in arrears on restitution payments and other fees.
Gameson and three others received 10 years deferred adjudication for their roles in the vandalism spree. Deferred adjudication is a form of probation that allows defendants to keep a felony conviction off their record by completing terms of an agreement dictated by a judge.
In this case each of the vandals could avoid having a felony record by completing 800 hours community service, spending 90 days in jail, paying $272,934 in restitution and staying out of legal trouble for 10 years.
Mrs. Benoit said the only restitution payments the cemetery has received have been in Colin Mayo’s name. Mayo was identified as one of the leaders of the spree during a sentencing hearing in August.
“He’s been excellent, he really has,” Mrs. Benoit said about Mayo’s restitution payments. “It seems like he’s turning his life around.”
During the August hearing, Judge Fancy Jezek of 426th State District Court told some of the vandals “I am granting you probation, not because you deserve it, but because I want your victims to be made whole.”
Before Gameson was arrested he had been spending weekends in jail, part of a work release program, in an effort to serve the 90 days that were required as a part of his probation.
Gameson was sentenced separately from others charged in the spree. He was not in the courtroom when Judge Jezek said, “I am absolutely serious that you comply with every term of your probation,” before warning the men that any probation violation would entitle her to find them guilty and subject them to the full range of punishment, which is up to 99 years, or life in prison.
