Police: Grave desecration suspect involved in earlier incident

The grave robber dropped his "The Amazing Spider-Man" backpack as he ran from a security guard.

Found inside the small backpack he discarded at Woodlawn Cemetery: a large hammer, a tire iron and bones - later identified as human remains.

On Tuesday, police arrested Andres Sotelo-Rivero, one of two men they say desecrated the grave of a man who died nearly 75 years ago.

Sotelo-Rivero, 41, faces felony charges of injuring or removing a tomb, disturbing contents of a grave or tomb and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Police believe he also was involved in an earlier desecration of the same grave.

"I guess the ghost will be haunting you for a while," Hillsborough Circuit Judge Walter Heinrich told Sotelo-Rivero in denying him bail today.

City parks and recreation security guard Jesus Cruz spotted Sotelo-Rivero and another man at the city-owned cemetery, 3412 N. Ola Ave., about 4:45 p.m. Tuesday, police said. The men ran in different directions when confronted.

Sotelo-Rivero picked up a brick and threatened Cruz, who continued chasing him, police spokeswoman Andrea Davis said. Cruz caught Sotelo-Rivero and they struggled before Sotelo-Rivero broke free. The chase continued until police arrived.

The other man has not been found.

Police said they don't know why the grave of Gaetano Candileri, who lived from 1850 to 1936, was desecrated. They have not identified any of Candileri's descendants.

Once the medical examiner's office releases the remains, they will be reinterred at the city's expense, said Linda Carlo, superintendent for parks and recreation.

On Sunday, someone broke a marble tomb at Candileri's gravesite, moved the coffin and possibly tried setting it on fire, Davis said. Parks and recreation employees increased patrols after the incident.

Davis said Sotelo-Rivero has offered several stories about why he was at the cemetery Tuesday, including that he was trying to take some "earth" from the scene. She said Sotelo-Rivero also said he didn't know what was in the backpack and that the other suspect, who he doesn't know, paid him to bury something.

Sotelo-Rivero had been out of jail for only hours when he was arrested Tuesday. He was arrested Monday after police said he drove with a suspended license and had a butcher knife under the center console armrest.

He was released on $750 bail on charges of carrying a concealed weapon and driving with a suspended license.

In October, Sotelo-Rivero was charged with robbery-home invasion. A witness told investigators Sotelo-Rivero held a silver revolver to the victim's head while a woman stole the victim's watch, cell phone and wallet, an arrest report states.

Sotelo-Rivero has pleaded not guilty in the case.

In June 2007, Sotelo-Rivero was sentenced to 13 months in state prison on theft and cocaine charges, records show.

This week's incidents at Woodlawn Cemetery are the latest of several desecrations at cemeteries in the Tampa Bay area in recent years.

Last month, a Lakeland man was accused of stealing more than two dozen bronze vases from graves at an Auburndale cemetery and selling some to an unwitting restaurant owner for use as table decorations.

In June, two people broke into a concrete tomb at Spring Hill Cemetery in Hernando County, removed a skull and placed it in a bucket of bleach, deputies said.

In June 2006, someone removed the skeletal remains of a 6-year-old boy from a mausoleum at Memorial Park Cemetery in Tampa. The case has stumped police, who said the culprits probably were voodoo or Santeria practitioners, although religious experts doubted that.