SELMA, Ala. – A Accomplice monument that was stolen and have become the thing of an odd ransom scheme is again in an Alabama cemetery the place it stood for almost 130 years — now glued to the bottom for good measure — however who took the chair stays in dispute.
A Louisiana man charged within the odd disappearance of the chair-shaped monument surrendered to authorities Wednesday in what his lawyer referred to as his first journey to town the place the alleged theft occurred.
Free on $30,000 bail after spending a pair hours in jail, Jason Warnick stood silently at a information convention as his legal professional, Michael Kennedy, mentioned the person was harmless of taking the chair, a monument to Accomplice President Jefferson Davis.
“My consumer didn’t commit any theft,” Kennedy mentioned.
District Lawyer Michael Jackson mentioned authorities consider Warnick or somebody he is aware of came upon in regards to the chair throughout an annual tour of previous properties held in Selma. Regardless of the protection denials, investigators say they’ve {a photograph} of Warnick with the chair.
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“He did it,” Jackson mentioned.
Positioned at Dwell Oak Cemetery in 1893 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the chair vanished from its base earlier this yr in Selma, a metropolis broadly often called the positioning of civil rights protests within the Nineteen Sixties.
An e mail purporting to be from a gaggle referred to as White Lies Matter claimed duty and mentioned the chair can be returned provided that the United Daughters of the Confederacy agreed to show a banner at its Virginia headquarters bearing a quote from a Black Liberation Military activist. The e-mail additionally included photographs of a faux chair with a gap lower within the seat like a bathroom and a person wearing Accomplice garb.
Authorities who arrested Warnick mentioned the true chair was noticed at his tattoo parlor in New Orleans, the place he’s charged with receiving stolen property.
Warnick was accompanied on the information convention by girlfriend Kathryn Diionno, who is also charged with receiving stolen property. She may face extra costs in Alabama, authorities have mentioned.
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The chair, which the United Daughters of the Confederacy has valued at $500,000, has been returned to the cemetery and sits in its unique location. A thick adhesive now holds its 4 legs to its brick base.
Warnick has no ties to White Lies Matter or another activist group, Kennedy mentioned. Longtime Selma activists Hank Sanders, a former Alabama state senator, and spouse Faya Toure mentioned the arrests of Warnick, Diionno and a 3rd individual spotlight the racial inequality of Selma. In distinction to their diligent efforts to search out the Accomplice monument’s thief, prosecutors usually fail to punish crimes in opposition to Black individuals, they mentioned.
Toure requested Jackson, who’s Black, to dismiss all costs within the monument case for the reason that chair “represents and honors a violent terrorist that used his energy to keep up probably the most dehumanizing slavery in human historical past.”
The prosecutor mentioned his workplace and the protection had been nowhere near a plea deal.
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“It may go to trial,” Jackson mentioned.
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