Defacing tombs consists of either:

A. intentionally defacing, breaking, destroying or removing any tomb, monument or gravestone erected to any deceased person or any memento, memorial or marker upon any place of burial of any human being or any ornamental plant, tree or shrub appertaining to the place of burial of any human being; or

B. intentionally marking, defacing, injuring, destroying or removing any fence, post, rail or wall of any cemetery or graveyard or erected within any cemetery or graveyard or any marker, memorial or funerary object upon any place of burial of any human being.

Whoever commits defacing a tomb is guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punished by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000) or by imprisonment for a definite term less than one year or both.

History: 1953 Comp., § 40A-12-3, enacted by Laws 1963, ch. 303, § 12-3; 1989, ch. 267, § 4.

The 1989 amendment, effective June 16, 1989, substituted "memorial or marker upon any place of burial of any human being" for "any memorial" in Subsection A, added all of the language of Subsection B beginning with "or any marker", and substituted all of the language of the undesignated last paragraph beginning with "misdemeanor" for "petty misdemeanor".

Multiple counts. — Damage to ten gravestones during a single criminal episode, with a single intent, constitutes only ten violations of the statute. Each gravestone represents distinct interests protected by the statute. Injury to each gravestone causes injury to the memory of a different person and is likely to cause emotional distress to a different collection of living persons. That circumstance is a strong indicator that destruction to each gravestone is a distinct offense. State v. Morro, 1999-NMCA-118, 127 N.M. 763, 987 P.2d 420.

Am. Jur. 2d, A.L.R. and C.J.S. references. — 14 Am. Jur. 2d Cemeteries § 44.

Liability for desecration of graves and tombstones, 77 A.L.R.4th 108.

14 C.J.S. Cemeteries §§ 34, 35.