HOUSTON METRO
Police: Teens turned skull into pot bong
09:57 AM CDT on Friday, May 9, 2008
HOUSTON -- Three teenagers are accused of digging up a corpse, removing the head and using the skull as a bong to smoke marijuana, Houston police said.
Matthew Richard Gonzalez and Kevin Wade Jones, both 17, and their 16-year-old friend were arrested Wednesday and charged with abuse of a corpse.
Police said the trio told investigators they dug up a body from an Humble area cemetery in March, decapitated it and converted the head into a marijuana pipe.
Houston Police Dept.
Matt Gonzalez is one of three teens accused of digging up a body from a grave and using its head as a bong.
Police said they do not have any physical evidence yet to confirm the story, but felt confident to pursue charges based on statements from the three teens.
According to court documents, the grave belonged to Willie Simms, an 11-year-old boy who died in 1921. Houston police had not yet been able to make contact with any of Simms' survivors.
Police were initially working on a stolen credit card case when they came upon Jones. According to court documents, it was during an intewview about the credit card case that Jones told investigators about the grave theft.
It was Gonzalez who reportedly took authorities to the gravesite in an unkept cemetery along FM 1960 and showed them the hole where they dug up the body. Because of weather elements, police have been unable to confirm if a body or casket had been disturbed.
11 News did some checking and found this type of grave digging crime is not as uncommon as some might think.
Houston Police
Kevin Jones is one of three teens accused of digging up a corpse and using its head to smoke marijuana.
In 2006, there was a similar case in Vermont. An 18-year-old stole a human skull from a grave and used it to make a bong.
The teen was convicted of two felonies and sentenced to 1 to 7 years in prison.
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