Accused vandal feeling remorse for destruction
BY DAN PARKER SOUTH JETTY REPORTER

Before the arrest COURTESY PHOTO Nathan Edge fishes in Aransas Channel during a weekend visit to Port Aransas that ultimately ended in his arrest in connection with the destruction of a sand sculpture at SandFest, on the beach in Port Aransas.

Nathan Edge said he impulsively destroyed a giant sand sculpture at SandFest on a $100 bet with a friend after a night of drinking and didn't know at the time that the sculpture was part of a festival attended by thousands each year.

In communications with the South Jetty, Edge - who was arrested and booked not long after the sculpture was destroyed - said he is deeply sorry for what happened at the SandFest grounds on the beach in Port Aransas on April 1.

Destroying the sculpture was "the worst thing I've ever done in my life," the 22-year-old Austin resident said in an e-mail to the South Jetty on Monday, April 9. "I sabotaged a locally held, annual festival, I infuriated an entire community, and I completely ruined (the sculptor team's) chance of winning a contest that requires more thought and effort than I will ever understand."

Edge was booked on a Class B misdemeanor charge of criminal mischief. He is free on a $2,500 bond.

As of Tuesday, April 10, the District Attorney 's Office had not yet made a decision on whether to charge Edge because prosecutors had not received documents from the Port Aransas Police Department describing the incident and the evidence, a prosecutor said.

The Port Aransas Police Department will bring the case to prosecutors within two weeks, PAPD Lt. Darryl Johnson said on April 10.

A Class B misdemeanor can mean a punishment of up to six months in jail and a fine up to $2,000. Edge also is being sued in small-claims court by SandFest organizers.

"Honestly, before I went to jail, I had not ever heard of SandFest," Edge said in an interview with the South Jetty on Thursday, April 5 - a day after he was released from jail on bond. "I was unaware of the whole competition, and I didn't know how much effort people put into it.

"I feel ashamed for what I've done," Edge said. "I've gone through a lot since then, and now it looks like I'm even going to get fired for it."

Edge works for a company that manufactures computer systems for tracking business inventories. He said he installs the systems for the company. He said his boss indicated that he might fire him for being arrested but had not yet made a decision.

Edge said he wants to make up for what he did by volunteering at next year's SandFest.

"I was thinking, next year, it would be kind of a neat thing if they set up a dunking booth (at SandFest), and everyone could come out and dunk the kid who ruined SandFest last year," Edge said.

Asked for a response to Edge's comments, Dee McElroy said the dunking booth idea sounded good.

"I am very tempted to take him up on that offer because I would like to be the first in line," McElroy said in a prepared statement. "But the people of Port Aransas and our volunteers will have to decide if they want him to volunteer next year."

"I would be open to anything," Edge said. "They could ask me to do anything, and I would be open to doing anything I can to make up for what I did."

The 11th annual SandFest was held March 30-April 1 on the beach between mile markers 8 and 11 in Port Aransas. SandFest is a non-profit organization, and some of the proceeds from the festival went to other non-profit groups in Port Aransas.

Part of the festival involved a sand sculpture competition among 27 master sculptors from around the world.

The sculpture that ended up being demolished had been sculpted by Ukrainian artists Iryna Kalyuzhna and Andrii Vazhynskyi. They had flown to Port Aransas from the other side of the world just to take part in SandFest.

The couple had never been in the United States before. For travel and other expenses related to their visit, their sponsor, Island Cycles, provided $1,300, and another $500 was contributed by SandFest and the Port Aransas Chamber of Commerce

The sand sculpting took place throughout the days Friday and Saturday. Sculptors had to wrap up their work by noon Sunday, April 1, for judging.

About 1:45 a.m. Sunday, a security guard hired by SandFest saw a man dive on the Ukrainians' sculpture, destroying it. About 75 percent finished, the 6-foot-high creation depicting a body builder called "The Iron Man" was reduced to a featureless mound of sand.

The man who smashed the sculpture quickly left in a truck, but the security guard gave police a description of the truck and its license plate number. Officers arrested Edge and a companion as they drove down the beach in a truck a few hours later.

All 27 master sculptors pitched in for about 45 minutes to help the Ukrainian couple rebuild a packed sand form so the couple could begin sculpting again with the limited time they had left in the competition.

The couple carved a new creation showing two babies curled inside a split apple with a serpent lurking nearby. Titled "Peace in Paradise," the piece garnered praise but did not win an award.

Edge's friend was released with no related charges after police determined he did not take part in the sculpture's destruction. Photographed and fingerprinted, Edge was held behind bars for three days in Port Aransas before pleading no contest to a charge of public intoxication and being fined $360 by Municipal Court Judge Duncan Neblett Jr.

Edge then was transferred to Nueces County Jail in Corpus Christi before being released on bond for the criminal mischief charge.

Edge said he had come to Port Aransas for a weekend of fishing and other fun with about 10 friends. It was only the second time he ever had visited the island, he said.

Edge said he and a friend were driving down the beach early Sunday morning when his friend stopped the truck to use the bathroom.

"It just happened to be in front of those sandcastles," Edge said. "He looked up and said, 'Hey, I'll bet you $100 you won't go over and knock one of those sandcastles down. I had been drinking, and I thought: 'I could use $100.' So I went over there and did it.

"Like I said, I was totally unaware of SandFest," Edge said. "I didn't know there was a competition. All I saw was a sandcastle. I was coherent. I wasn't belligerent drunk. I was aware of what I was doing. But I didn't understand the consequences. I didn't understand how big of a deal I got myself into."

Edge said he saw a number of sand sculptures in a line on the beach but, in the darkness, didn't notice the booths, trailers and tents that lined about onethird of a mile of the beach as part of the festival.

"I didn't see trailers or tents or anything like that," he said. "I saw a target and I went directly to that," he said. "I didn't see everything else."

Edge said he figured the sculptures were abandoned and naturally would fall down anyway, eventually. He also said he didn't know it was a security guard who was pursuing him immediately after knocking down the sculpture.

"I saw a flashlight chasing me," Edge said. "He never said, 'I'm a cop.' It could have been - I didn't know who it was. Probably someone not very happy with me. So I ran."

Asked whether the sculpture's grand look didn't make him think twice before destroying it, Edge said, "I obviously thought it was a masterpiece, a piece of art and beautiful, Maybe I was not in the right state of mind, but I really thought that by knocking it over, it could be mine, in a sense. … And that's crazy. I totally appreciated the art of it.

"Now it has turned into the worst thing I've ever done in my life," Edge said. "My life has flipped upside down in the past (few) days."

The vandalism upset many SandFest backers and Port Aransans in general.

"I am very angry at him and very sad that his stupidity hurt so many people and cost SandFest, the sponsor, and the Ukrainians money, not to mention the loss of an incredible piece of art," SandFest event director McElroy wrote in her prepared statement.

"However, I think we need to keep some perspective," McElroy continued. "This gentleman has spent several nights in jail, is facing criminal charges and may lose his job. I am hearing that his whole life has been turned upside down.

"If he had no idea about the ramifications of his actions, he certainly does now," McElroy wrote. "The worst part is that no matter how hard we come down on this one person, next year we will still be vulnerable to some other young, foolish kid who has been drinking."

SandFest has had paid security guards in the past but "we will need to augment that with a volunteer team so that there will be more people out there," McElroy said. "If this were to happen again, we could lose all our credible sculptors."

Edge said it has been an ugly shock to learn that he angered so many people so much.

"I never had any enemies in my life," he said. "I've pretty much always been able to get along with people. … I'm not the type of guy who would hurt someone intentionally."

Edge's sister, Jennifer McCall, agreed with that assessment.

"Obviously, he's my brother, so I'm pretty biased," said McCall, 26, of Kyle. "But I think he's a good guy. … He just unfortunately made a bad decision. He gets up and goes to work every day. … He is a lot of fun. He can be a goof-off, but he is a good person. I don't think of him as mean or spiteful."

Edge said he is not a troublemaker. He said he is a member of a Pentecostal church and has gone on mission trips, including a trip to Costa Rica to help rebuild a church when he was in high school.

Edge did say he was arrested one time before, when he was 17 years old. He said he threw a party when his parents left town one weekend, and he ended up getting arrested for providing alcohol to fellow minors. He said he was given probation.

Edge said he hasn't collected on the bet he made with his friend about knocking down the sand sculpture. "I guess now he owes me $100," Edge said. "I doubt I'll ever see it."