Three individuals are in custody at the Karnes County jail facing charges of burglary and criminal mischief in the February 5 break-in and vandalism of Runge school grounds.

One individual was detained February 16, and then two more were taken into custody February 21. All three of the arrested boys are 14-year-old 8th graders, according to the Karnes County Sheriff’s Department.

Sheriff David Jalufka did not release the names of the individuals, citing state law that prevents him from disclosing the names of implicated minors. School officials cited the same laws after refusing to release the students’ names.

Each boy has been charged with burglary of a building and criminal mischief. Both charges are state jail felonies. Each carries sentences of up to two years in state prison and a fine up to $10,000.

Criminal mischief charges normally are classified class A, B, and C misdemeanors, depending on the amount of damage done. Police have estimated the damage at around $8,268, though, upgrading the charge to a state jail felony.

Karnes County Sheriff Deputy Stephen Monsivais investigated the case and made the arrests. He said last week one of the arrested individuals has confessed, implicating the other two arrested minors.

"They have a history," he said. "They were my primary suspects when this all went down."

Several fingerprints were recovered from the vandalized areas, but Monsivais said his biggest piece of evidence is the confession. The boy turned over valuable information that, according to Monsivais, only the perpetrators or the police would have known.

"Unless you were there, you wouldn’t have known the things I was told," Monsivais said.

All three boys are from Runge and attend Runge 8th grade classes. They remained in custody as of press time Tuesday.

Each were charged after school officials found vandals had broken into a Runge elementary school office February 5, destroyed a Xerox machine, trashed several computers, destroyed data files, broke into a trophy case and destroyed several trophies inside, and coated parts of the school in chemicals from a school fire extinguisher.

The vandals also wrote several messages Runge ISD Superintendent Earnest Havner classified as "terroristic" death threats.