CLAYTON, Mo. _ A Florissant man was drunk, on drugs and mad at a friend when he toppled more than 100 headstones at a Jewish cemetery in University City more than a year ago, according to authorities.
Alzado Harris, 34, confessed to toppling the headstones at the Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery in February 2017, causing more than $30,000 in damage, according to court documents.
Police found a jacket at the scene, and recently got a DNA match to Harris, said Ed Magee, spokesman for Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch.
University City police Capt. Frederick Lemmons II said his department received confirmation of the DNA hit Tuesday and arrested Harris at his home the same day.
Prosecutors charged Harris with one count of institutional vandalism, a felony. His bail has been set at $20,000.
University City Detective Shannon Eaton said Harris confessed to toppling about 120 gravestones at the cemetery sometime between Feb. 17 and Feb. 20, 2017.
The crime captured the country's attention and drew widespread condemnation. The vandalism came at a time when Jewish community centers nationwide were getting a string of bomb threats _ threats a different St. Louis-area man was eventually charged with making.
Tarek El-Messidi, a Muslim social justice advocate from Philadelphia, and another volunteer raised $160,000 for restoration efforts at the cemetery within a few weeks of the vandalism.
In addition to the money raised by the Muslim group, the Jewish Federation raised almost $250,000, which organizers said would go toward security upgrades not just at Chesed Shel Emeth, but all Jewish cemeteries around the St. Louis region.
Vice President Mike Pence came to town and walked the cemetery grounds alongside Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, assessing the damage. Pence told volunteers who turned out to help clean up the site that they showed the heart of the state and the nation.
"There is no place in America for hatred or acts of prejudice or violence or anti-Semitism," Pence said during the visit.
But charges against Harris contain no hint of a religious or anti-Semitic motive.
"There is no evidence to indicate the incident was racially, ethnically or religiously motivated," University City police said in a news release.
"He was drunk and mad at a friend," Magee said. The friend had recently dropped him off near the cemetery, and he took out his anger there, prosecutors said. He hopped the fence and began toppling headstones.
That it came amid bomb threats and other anti-Semitic acts nationwide drew extra scrutiny, but appears coincidental, McCulloch said.
"That was not good timing on his part," the prosecutor said at a news conference discussing the charges Wednesday.
Karen Aroesty, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, said it was still powerful to see how the people came together after the vandalism.
"The upside was there was so much capacity for inter-group and inter-religious engagement, for people all over the world to support the Jewish community here," Aroesty said.
Harris has a criminal history that includes multiple burglary convictions. He's also been convicted of stealing a motor vehicle, leaving the scene of an accident, assault and marijuana possession.
Harris was charged with second-degree burglary and theft/stealing less than $500 for breaking into a storage unit in Hazelwood in April 2016. He pleaded guilty in that case in October 2017 and started a 120-day sentence in the Missouri Department of Corrections on Dec. 6.
A DNA sample taken when he went to serve that sentence was entered in a national database, according to McCulloch. Harris was released from prison on April 5 and put on five years of probation, according to court records. Last week, his DNA sample returned as a match to the jacket found in the cemetery. He was arrested Tuesday and charged Wednesday.
Harris could get up to seven years in prison for the vandalism.
Anita Feigenbaum, of the Chesed Shel Emeth Society, attended McCulloch's news conference and said she wanted to thank authorities. She also credited longtime groundskeeper Dennis Henson, who discovered the vandalism and then spotted the jacket pinned under one of the fallen stones.
The cemetery was rededicated in August after repairs were completed. Feigenbaum said the cemetery now has upgraded security, including cameras, lighting and higher fencing.
