2 Plead Not Guilty to Theft of Grave Markers, Urns From Cemetery

Two men pleaded not guilty to charges of stealing grave markers and urns from a Jewish cemetery in a hearing Thursday that attracted punk rocker friends of the defendants and a Jewish leader outraged over the alleged crimes.

The defendants, Jacob Luis Rupe, 20, and Craig Matthew Lax, 21, entered their pleas to charges ranging from vandalism of church property to grand theft. The pleas were heard during a late afternoon hearing in Burbank Municipal Court.

Police have said Rupe and Lax are affiliated with neo-Nazi punk rockers because of writings and insignias found this week on clothing inside their apartment.

But according to a source close to the case, while swastikas were found in the apartment, some of the other hate propaganda found was directed against Nazis. Rupe also referred to himself as “Mr. Death,” leaving the possibility that he is a death worshiper rather than a neo-Nazi, the source said.

The case against Rupe and Lax began to unfold Tuesday when authorities, acting on a tip, searched Rupe and Lax’s Burbank apartment, where they found a human skull and two cemetery signs. Rupe has given authorities conflicting accounts on how he got the skull, claiming he found it in his backyard and that he tripped over it while hiking through Griffith Park, the source said.

Police believe the signs were taken from Mount Sinai Memorial Park near Griffith Park and have since linked the two men to another incident last November involving a different Jewish cemetery.

In that case, Rupe and Lax were detained by police after officers found them riding in a van carrying grave markers and flower urns, which were later reported missing from Sholom Memorial Park in Sylmar.

Prosecutors filed a misdemeanor count against the driver of the van, Kevin Beardsley, 21, for possessing stolen property. According to the city attorney’s office, Beardsley pleaded guilty to the charge and was ordered by the court to pay thousands of dollars in restitution to the cemetery and to serve on a Caltrans work crew.

No charges, however, were filed against Rupe or Lax due to insufficient evidence. But that changed this week after new evidence surfaced during the ongoing investigation.

Assistant Dist. Atty. Robert Werner said his office filed three felony counts each against Rupe and Lax stemming from the November incident. Rupe also faces an additional count of receiving stolen property in connection with the stolen cemetery signs.

“It’s a strange case,” Werner said. “But I think they’re just strange people.”

Meanwhile, no charges have been filed against either of the men in connection with the human skull found in their apartment because police have yet to determine where it came from.

Friends and family members of the two men waited throughout the day for the hearing, but refused to be interviewed by reporters. At least one of the supporters said information being released on Rupe and Lax by the authorities was “all wrong.”

Defense attorneys also declined to comment Thursday at the arraignment, during which a judge set bail at $80,000 for Rupe and $70,000 for Lax. The two men were led into the courtroom handcuffed and chained together.

Lax wore a blue shirt and a shaved head and Rupe wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the name and insignia of a punk band, with both sides of his head closely shaved.

Rick Eaton, a senior researcher with the Simon Wiesenthal Center in West Los Angeles, said his organization is particularly concerned about the defendants’ connection with the punk music scene. Since the growth of the neo-Nazi skinhead movement in the mid- to late-1980s, he said, some white supremacist groups have embraced certain styles of punk rock with overtly racist and pro-white lyrics as a bonding and recruiting device.

“We’re interested in knowing where [the suspects] are coming from,” Eaton said. “We want to see if there was neo-Nazi influence, and that would involve finding out what literature they were into, what bands they were into, and if they were in a band, what sort of songs they were singing and so on.”

Eaton said his organization is monitoring the case to ensure prosecutors fully investigate whether the incidents involving the Jewish cemeteries were hate crimes.

“We hope the possibility that this is a hate crime won’t be just written off,” Eaton said. “This kind of thing doesn’t happen every day, but it happens often enough that a clear message has to be sent that this is not acceptable.”