Jury clears cemetery in death of boy crushed by tombstone

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — A jury found that a Utah cemetery association was not negligent in the death of a 4-year-old boy who was crushed by a historic headstone.

Jurors delivered their decision Thursday night in a family lawsuit over the 2012 death of Carson Dean Cheney, who was hiding behind the 250-pound tombstone that fell while he took photos with his family in Park City.

Lawyers for the boy’s parents say that the Glenwood Cemetery Association’s shoddy maintenance left the headstone weak and that it failed to warn people about potential danger even though headstones had fallen before.

The association says its volunteers conducted frequent inspections of the cemetery and the headstone was solid until the boy started playing on it July 5, 2012.