Background: Restlawn Cemeteries and Cremation Gardens in Jacksonville, Fla. (Google Maps). Inset: One of the vandalized tombstones (WJXT).
A Florida man was sentenced to nine months in jail after pleading guilty to urinating on two graves and destroying their tombstones.
Michael Gainer III, 21, was taken into custody a few months after the graves of Darryl Lundy Jr., 17, and Dari’one Flanigan, 18, were discovered damaged and defaced. The resting places of both individuals are located in Jacksonville’s historic Restlawn Cemeteries and Cremation Gardens, which is also referred to as Restlawn Memorial Park. Gainer came under suspicion when videos surfaced on his social media where he was seen spitting, vandalizing, and urinating on a tombstone.
Images from the videos showing Gainer desecrating the graves of Lundy and Flanigan, who were relatives, were shared with the mothers of the deceased. One of the mothers regularly visited her son’s grave and maintained the site during her visits. On her visit on Aug. 16, she noticed no issues with the grave. However, when Jacksonville law enforcement officers went to the gravesite on Aug. 19, they confirmed the damage. The Instagram account linked to the videos belonged to Gainer.
As per the arrest affidavit, one of the videos showed Gainer using a large rock to cause damage to the tombstone and also spitting, urinating, and defacing it. In a separate video, a live stream, he purportedly confessed to committing the acts. He mentioned in the video that he did it intentionally to provoke a reaction from others.
Gainer can be seen in the videos, and both mothers identified him in a photo lineup in September.
A day later, the mother of the other deceased boy received word that her son’s grave had been vandalized the same night. Both of the boys’ graves were next to each other. They died of gun violence three years apart — Flanigan in 2019 and Lundy in 2022 — but neither of their cases have been solved.
WJXT, a local news outlet in Jacksonville, reported that both graves were successfully restored.
Gainer originally pleaded not guilty to two felony counts of injuring or removing a tomb or monument but changed his plea to guilty. He was sentenced on Dec. 19 to nine months in jail, 42 months of probation, and 300 hours of community service cleaning graveyards.
