LAWRENCE — As several people looked on in horror yesterday afternoon, a 47-year-old city woman slit the throat of a rooster and splashed its blood on a gravestone at Bellevue Cemetery, police said.
Witnesses told police the woman, later identified as Maria Portalatina, of 97 Oak St., placed candles around the grave, pulled out a rooster that was tied at the feet and sliced it open. She then sprayed the blood of the rooster over the grave and then set fire to the rooster and the ground at the grave site.
The grave was very old and the stone had been knocked over, police said. It was not immediately known whose grave Portalatina was at, police said.
What the onlookers saw, according to the Rev. Jorge Reyes, pastor of St. Mary of the Assumption Church in Lawrence, was the practice of the religion of Santeria.
"I've always heard about it (animal sacrifices)," said Reyes. "There are so many meanings and reasons why they do it. Some are for good and others for bad."
Santeria is a religion that mixes African and Catholic beliefs, most common among Caribbean immigrants, he said. In addition to chickens and roosters, they also sacrifice pigeons and goats.
Officer Ariel Montas was sent to the scene and after an investigation arrested Portalatina, charging her with malicious damage to property over $250, animal cruelty, willful and malicious killing or poisoning of an animal, willful destruction of a gravestone and setting a fire in the open without the permission of the Fire Department.
The malicious damage to property charge carries a penalty of up to five years in state prison, two and a half years in the house of correction, and a fine of not more than three times the value of the damaged property.
The charges of animal cruelty, willful and malicious killing of an animal, and willful destruction of a gravestone each carries a penalty of up to five years in prison, two and a half years in the house of correction, and up to $5,000 in fines.
