UPDATED: Cerritos Sheriff's Deputies Nab Two Artesia Cemetery Bandits

Updated at 1:40 p.m.: Adds charges to be filed by Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

A pair of thieves are in custody today on suspicion of breaking into Artesia Cemetery early Tuesday morning and stealing a wooden cross from the ground's maintenance yard. 

Cerritos sheriff's deputies arrested Jason Fluharty, 29 of Torrance and Jolynn Ramirez, 29, of Artesia, about 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, said Lt. J. Deedrick of the . The individuals are each being held in lieu of $20,000 bail and they are scheduled to appear for arraingment in Bellflower Superior Court on this afternoon (Dec. 29).

Cerritos sheriff's Detective Aaron King told Patch that the case was submitted to the Los Angeles District Attorney's office this morning, and they have elected to file felony attempt commercial burglary charges along with misdemeanor vandalism charges against both suspects.

The events leading up to the duo's arrest began about 3 a.m. on Dec. 27 when they broke into the cemetery located at 11142 Artesia Blvd. in Cerritos, and stole a white wooden cross bearing a circular military emblem from a maintenance yard located near the grounds' office. The two also tried to break into a window to gain access into the office, but failed, Deedrick said.

During the burglary investigation, deputies learned that the overnight break-in was caught on cemetery surveillance video, the lieutenant said. A few hours later a cemetery employee notified the deputy investigating the case that the same suspects were just spotted near the back fence of the cemetery property.

A sheriff's deputy was immediately sent out to the location, and she apprehended the man and woman on Studebaker Road near Artesia Boulevard.

"The stolen cross was found inside a backpack" being carried by Fluharty at the time of the arrests, Deedrick said. (See image carousel for a photo of the stolen cross.)

The History of the Artesia Cemetery

The Artesia Cemetery had its first burial in 1882. As the only cemetery around for many years, it served the needs of Artesia and much of the surrounding area. Through the years many burials followed, of which about 30 were veterans of the Civil War. The cemetery now includes the graves of veterans of several other conflicts, including a casualty of the war in Iraq.

In the early 1900s the California State Legislature enacted provisions into the State Health and Safety code to establish local public cemetery districts. The county's Board of Supervisors were given jurisdiction for the management and control of all such cemeteries.

The 14-acre Artesia Cemetery was formed in 1929 and is one of 265 public cemeteries throughout the state. Operations are governed by a Board of Trustees, appointed by Supervisor Don Knabe, Fourth District, Los Angeles County, and currently include: Joyce Yeutter, District Manager, and Trustees Lupe Cabrera, Dick Redmayne and Barbara Applebury.