A man who planted flowers on the gravesite of his fiancée has been arrested on a charge of criminal littering and fined, on the direction of his late partner’s dad.
Winston "Winchester" Hagans’ fiancée Hannah Ford was killed in a three-car crash in January 2021, around a month after the pair got engaged.
To honour 27-year-old Hannah, Winston placed a planter box full of fresh flowers and a photo of the two of them on her grave in Auburn, Alabama.
However, earlier this year Winston was arrested on a charge of criminal littering.
While City officials had reassured him that he could put the planter at Ford’s gravesite, they were forced to enforce a law against this if there was a complaint.
Winston later found out the complaint had been filed by Tom Ford; his fiancée's father, who had not approved of their relationship.
"The police don't enforce the law unless the owner of the plot tries to do something about it," Winston told The Washington Post earlier this year.
Winston was convicted last Thursday on one count of criminal littering and was ordered to pay around $300 (£245) in fines and costs, and handed a suspended jail sentence of 30 days.
This would remain suspended as long as Winston did not place any more flowers or planter boxes on his fiancée's grave.
Winston’s attorney, Jeff Tickal, indicated after his guilty verdict that a written appeal would be filed within two weeks.
If he won the appeal, a new trial would be granted and the fines and court costs dropped.
On Winston’s website, he wrote of how he had met Hannah at a coffee shop in Montgomery, Alabama.
The pair bonded over their faith - her father was pastor at Grace Baptist Church in Montgomery and his father was an evangelist in Opelika, Ala.
Hannah had been a rising figure in Republican politics in Alabama and had worked on several political campaigns, including Roy Moore's US Senate campaign in 2017.
Moore lost the race to Democrat Doug Jones, after a woman accused the Republican of initiating a sexual encounter when she was 14.
Around the time that her relationship with Winston was intensifying, Hannah got out of politics.
The pair loved cooking and spent time talking about what the rest of their lives would look like.
However, Hannah’s father did not approve of the couple’s relationship.
The pastor at one point demanded that they didn’t communicate with each other for 30 days.
But when the couple decided to keep dating, the decision fractured Hannah's relationship with her father.
On December 5, 2020, Hannah shared how the couple were engaged. "I still can't believe I actually got to say YES to you!!!"
She wrote. "I LOVE YOU and I simply can't wait to be your WIFE!!!!!"
But on January 16, 2021, Hannah had been driving from a potential wedding venue - which she had checked out with Winston - to her home in Montgomery when she was involved in the fatal crash.
The driver of a sedan lost control and collided with another car, which rammed into Ford’s SUV, police said.
Upon finding out about the crash, Winston was disbelieving.
"I was thinking, 'There's no way she could be gone,' " he said.
"She was the most loving and kind and hopeful and generous person I ever met."
The trauma of losing his fiancée deepened, Winston said, when her family made it clear to him that he wasn't welcome at her funeral.
Months later, Winston was pulled over by police carrying out the warrant for his arrest.
Certain burial plots in the state are owned and controlled by the family of the deceased and were therefore considered private property.
Tom Ford testified in the nonjury trial on Thursday at Auburn Municipal Court that Winston had placed a total of 10 planter boxes on the grave since May 2021, all of which had been either discarded or sent back to Winston - who would have been Tom’s son-in-law.
Ford filed a criminal complaint with the Auburn Police Department when the seventh, eighth and ninth planter boxes were removed, he said.
The complaint was filed before the 10th box was found.
Before he was convicted, Wnston expressed his thanks online to the friends and family who had supported him - not only in his loss of Hannah, but also for being tried for placing the flowers on her grave.
