A Milton municipal court has ordered three local teens to each write letters of apology, pay restitution to their victims and perform 25 hours of community service after they were found guilty of vandalizing residents’ Christmas yard displays.
The high school students had been charged with second degree criminal damage to property, criminal trespass, theft by taking and being unruly in the Dec. 10 attack in the Gates Mill subdivision, Milton police said.
Residents of three homes awoke that morning to find a damaged Nativity scene, a baby Jesus and Mary statute tossed aside and a Santa lawn ornament hanging from a tree. Reindeer lights were knocked over, an inflatable Santa was flattened and other decorations were bent, broken and beheaded.
Investigators identified a black Jeep Wrangler seen in the area between midnight and 3 a.m. the morning of the incident and tracked it to its driver, who turned out to be one of the three youths, police said. The suspect then led police to his two accomplices.
The youths, who were not identified because they are juveniles, were sentenced in the case last Friday, police said. One lived in the neighborhood, and the two others did not.
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