SHELBY COUNTY, Tenn. — A Bartlett cemetery owner accused of burying multiple bodies in the same grave won’t spend any time behind bars.
On Friday, Jemar Lambert entered an Alford Plea for burying bodies on his neighbor’s property.
An Alford Plea simply means there’s enough evidence to convict him, but he wants to maintain his innocence.
Lambert will get ten years of probation.
As part of the deal with the state, other charges, such as abuse of a corpse, were thrown out.
People who buried their loves ones at Galilee Memorial Gardens are furious.
“It’s been a whole yea,r and I haven’t been able to go out there,” said Tequila Smith as tears fell from her face.
Smith hasn’t been able to visit her mother’s grave at Galilee since she buried her in 2009.
She blames Lambert.
Smith thinks Lambert knew he was jamming hundreds of bodies into grave sites between 2010 and 2012.
“You give him a slap on the wrist. You’re crushing caskets! Burying people on one another, and you want us to be okay with this?” said Smith.
Lambert will also have to cooperate with the state’s investigation, get random drug tests and complete 500 hours of community service.
“I think this is a very difficult situation for the victims, and everyone involved in the state of Tennessee,” said prosecutor Byron Winsett.
The deal came just one day after officers arrested Lambert for failing a drug test and violating his bond conditions.
Lambert apologized in court today to the judge and the community.
Smith said no apology will fix what he did.
“Not enough! You got to understand there are too many people out there buried who we don’t have answers for,” said Smith.
If Lambert violates his probation at any point in time, he will have to spend ten years in prison.
Lambert’s attorney was nowhere to be found for a comment.
WREG is told this will not change the civil court cases going on in Chancery Court.
