I think California Health & Safety Code 7052(a) covers this – I can only assume a competent prosecutor could get a jury instruction that eating is included in the term “mutilation”
(a) A person who willfully mutilates, disinters, removes from the place of interment, or commits an act of sexual penetration on, or has sexual contact with, remains known to be human, without authority of law, is guilty of a felony. This section does not apply to a person who, under authority of law, removes the remains for reinterment, or performs a cremation, reduction, or hydrolysis.
It’s a peculiar case involving a Wasco man some residents describe as ordinary and polite — 27-year-old Resendo Tellez.
One Wasco resident showed 17 News where Tellez often slept, in a small doorway near Wasco Liquor. There were a few blankets on the ground. The resident said those blankets belonged to Tellez.
A nearby liquor store employee said Tellez was a regular customer who came in a few times a day, every day.
She explained Tellez never caused trouble, and he’d normally buy a mix of food, beer — whatever he could afford with what folks gave him.
The store shared security footage, where you can see Tellez visiting the store just hours before his Friday arrest. Watch the video above for more.
The employee added when she first heard the news, she thought “No, it can’t be him.”
