Woman arrested on charge of decapitating Jesus statue at Long Island church

Posted on by Taiwo Adebulu

2 min readNew DelhiUpdated: May 23, 2026 12:36 PM IST

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A 41-year-old woman was arrested last week for allegedly decapitating a statue of Jesus at a Catholic church in Long Island, US. Deyonna Subert on May 15 took the head off a statue of Jesus, which had been at the St. Mary’s Church in Bay Shore for 12 years, the Suffolk County police told NBC News.

She was charged with second-degree criminal mischief and taken into custody outside 221 West Main Street at 6:39 am the following day.

Statue head discovered in bushes

The church’s pastor, Father Anthony Iaconis, said he discovered the statue’s severed head in bushes on the church grounds, the report stated quoting News12.

“It’s terrible, just terrible that somebody would desecrate a statue of Jesus,” parishioner Chris Cortina told NBC New York.

Meanwhile, community members have placed flowers in the courtyard, and a plastic tarp now covers the vandalised statue.

During her arraignment in Suffolk County court on May 21, Subert’s attorney denied the allegations, the report stated. “Right now the only position we have taken is to deny the charges,” Subert’s lawyer said, while noting that there were no allegations that the incident was a hate crime or that Subert harbored anti-Catholic bias, NBC New York reported.

The attorney’s statement comes even as detectives are investigating the incident as a hate crime.

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A judge of the Suffolk County court has ordered Subert to stay away from the church as the case proceeds.

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