Planted In Prison

[TexasStooge]

Man sent to jail when 99-year-old woman claims he didn't plant her flowers

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A bunch of flowers has planted a man in jail.

All David Alan Waters had to do to stay a free man was plant 10 chrysanthemums in the yard of Minnie Becton, the 99-year-old woman whose home he vandalized in January.

Waters pleaded guilty on Sept. 22 to vandalism over $1,000, a felony, for throwing large rocks through the windows and doors of Becton's home, smashing her car windshield and gouging her yard with tire tracks.

Waters was given a two-year suspended sentence and two years of probation, provided he spiff up the yard by planting the flowers, among other provisions.

Somebody planted the flowers. Waters said he did it, but Becton claimed it was somebody else.

"There is no reason for a 99-year-old woman in a wheelchair to lie about who she saw on her property," Criminal Court Judge Carolyn Wade Blackett said in revoking Waters' probation. "This is an issue of credibility. Who has reason to lie? Mrs. Becton doesn't."

Waters stuck to his story.

"I planted these mums," he said. "She may not have remembered it. She's wrong. I was there. She was really nice when we were over there."

The judge was unmoved. Blackett on Friday ordered Waters to serve about seven months of his two-year sentence. He also has time to serve for an unrelated harassment conviction.