An Alabama man who left a flower box decorated with pictures of him and his late fiancée at her grave was found guilty of littering on Thursday.
Winston Hagans, whose fiancée, Hannah Ford, died in a car crash in January 2021, was arrested when a traffic stop over an expired tag revealed that Ford’s father, Tom Ford, had signed a warrant against him, according to Alabama news station WBRC.
The father, who owned the cemetery plot, said in court that he did not approve of his daughter’s relationship with Hagans, WBRC reported
Hagans had looked at a wedding venue with Hannah Ford just before the car crash, Al.com reported.
Hagans, who had put the flower box on Ford’s grave to honor her, noted that someone kept removing it so he kept replacing it, according to the news site.
He said he got permission from the the city of Auburn to put the planter at the gravesite, WBRC said, even though a city rule bars planters at graves.
A representative of the city’s parks and recreation department said she told Hagans to stop putting boxes back on the grave but that he continued to do it, according to the news site.
Hagans plans to appeal Judge Jim McLaughlin’s decision. He was ordered to pay a $50 fine for littering along with a $250 court fee.