Judge sentences graffiti vandal to eight years

[douglas9]

CORPUS CHRISTI — A habitual graffiti vandal gave a tearful plea for probation Friday but instead got eight years behind bars.

Sebastion Perez, 18, pleaded guilty to three graffiti charges along with possession of marijuana, all state jail felonies.

State District Judge Marisela Saldaña sentenced him to the maximum two years in a state jail on each count. He broke into loud sobs when the judge announced her decision to stack the sentences.

Perez had told the judge that for months he had gone out with friends night after night, smoking marijuana and then spray-painting.

http://www.caller.com/news/2009/dec/11/judge-sentences-graffiti-vandal-to-eight-years/?print=1

[malaise]

1. And Bush and Cheney walk the streets?

Oh Fuck John Yoo too.

[barbtries]

4. rice and rumsfeld

and many more. this country is so fucked up. so fucked up.

[20score]

65. That is infuriating.

[NYC_SKP]

2. Stupid and destructive behavior should have consequences. n/t

[barbtries]

5. yeah - consequences

eight years in prison?! that is cruel and unusual punishment in my opinion. nobody died, nobody got hurt. he could be sentenced to clean up his mess, attend classes, get help. 8 years in prison is excessive. in the extreme.

[malaise]

7. I agree with you 100%

This is fugging madness.

[LeftishBrit]

17. Yes, but not eight years in prison

A stiff fine and community service would be more appropriate.

The long prison sentences should be for those who seriously harm other people. Rapists sometimes get less time than that.

[NYC_SKP]

35. I agree but in California such a sentence would never be served, maybe two years.

If indeed the original sentence would be that long.

Eight years will probably train this individual to be a menace to society, not a helpful thing.

Not knowing the full history of the person, I won't offer what I think would be a fair sentence, but to be sure it should have been shorter or consist only of community service and paying restitution.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

30. 8 years for an 18 year old for spray painting and pot smoking

horseshit

[NYC_SKP]

37. I didn't mean to suggest that I agree with the 8-year sentence.

I would recommend little or no incarceration and substantial community service and restitution.

And these probably should have come much sooner to what seems to be a repeat offender.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

39. yeah i agree with substantial community service but no point sending a kid to prison

to turn our a real hardened criminal for what aren't really violent or substantive crimes

[NYC_SKP]

41. I worked with juvenile hall wards for four years. What happens is NOT pretty.

And what happens to those 18 years and older is far worse.

By and large, incarceration settings are breeding grounds for criminals.

And, crowding institutions with non-violent offenders taxes the system well beyond its capacity to rehabilitate.

:donut:

[20score]

46. Really? With no limits? You have no concept of degrees, I see.

[NYC_SKP]

49. You are reading quite a bit into my post.

You should check some of the exchanges I've had in that subthread.

[20score]

50. Very well then! Your subsequent posts are rational and I agree.

[barbtries]

3. eight years.

and the woman who killed my daughter got 4.

there is no fucking justice. :cry::cry::cry::cry::cry:

possession of marijuana a felony? :wtf:

[alcibiades_mystery]

6. There are no crimes more serious than property crimes

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/23/ex-cop-anthony-abbate-get_n_219651.html

Just sayin'...

[jmowreader]

8. In that case...

Let's label Bush's war a property crime and throw his ass in prison for the rest of his life for it.

[alcibiades_mystery]

11. Was being sarcastic

[jmowreader]

42. I know...

but if it'll put Shrub in jail, why not?

[Fumesucker]

9. I think the judge should have to pay the entire cost of imprisoning this person from his own pocket.

It was the pot that made the judge sentence him the way he did, I feel quite confident in asserting that.

That sentence will cost the taxpayers close to a quarter million dollars.

[cowcommander]

63. Her

http://judgesaldana.com/

[ORDagnabbit]

10. oughta break his damn hands too. I absolutely hate graffiti vandals...homeowners ought be allowed

to beat the crap out of them.

[intheflow]

18. Yes, and this 18 year old should have gotten life in prison!

And he should be sterilized while in prison too! Graffiti is a heinous crime--think of the children! :eyes:

Hyperbole much, ORDagnabbit? Do you think this sentence is likely to make him a better person when he comes out of jail, or someone likely to do much worse things than graffiti? Graffiti or violence, I'll take the creative outlet over the violent one any day.

[ORDagnabbit]

47. its not creative...its animals marking territory.

[intheflow]

53. Graffiti artists are not animals.

They're people. I say it's a million times better use of their time tagging than shooting up or shooting others.

Of course, some might say animals lack the ability to be compassionate. Pot, meet Kettle.

[ORDagnabbit]

55. its not art its violent animals marking private property and I'm a bit tired of making excuses for

criminals.

[readmoreoften]

58. He'll be so much less of a criminal after he spends 8 years in a Texas gulag.

If a kid doodled with spray paint on my home (yes I own one), and I discovered he got 8 years for it, I'd be horrified.

[dysfunctional press]

68. "Graffiti or violence, I'll take the creative outlet over the violent one any day"

i'd rather the gangbangers just killed each other off, rather than vandalize other people's proprty.

[LeftishBrit]

12. Sounds excessive!

People often get less time than that for violent crimes.

[mcablue]

13. This seems way too harsh to me

Drug laws ought to be revised and made much milder.

[thunder rising]

14. Tom Delay, will he face justice?

[Hassin Bin Sober]

15. I have a hard time feeling sorry for this punk but 8 years is harsh.

Maybe a year or two in the slam would suffice?

[dysfunctional press]

26. if he behaves himself, he'll probably do 4 years at the most.

nt

[readmoreoften]

59. Because that's how prison works in Texas.

:crazy:

[G_j]

16. & only 18 yrs old

a complete travesty

[Vickers]

19. I've had my house "tagged" so I have zero sympathy for these assholes, but

eight years?

Geez.

[Octafish]

20. What smirking pretzeldent got busted for cocaine with intent to deliver and got?

Know your BFEE: George W Bush did "community service" at Project P.U.L.L.

And if Judge Maxima is interested in meting out some more justass:

Know your BFEE: How Smirko Got Rich

Oh, almost forgot to add: The little turd from Crawford also lied America into two illegal, immoral and unnecessary wars. Isn't that against the law, too?

Know your BFEE: Bush Lied America into War

[snagglepuss]

21. I hate graffiti but this is excessive. Why not punish him to work with Habitat

for Humanity for eight years? That way he might understand the effort required to create something substantial and the pride felt accomplishing something of value.

[intheflow]

22. And gain respect for other people's property.

You should have been the presiding judge on this. Habitat community service would have been perfect!

[lumpy]

27. Agreed. The kid should be directed toward learning something

that will contribute to improving his lot and contributing to some community good. Jail will likely only endow him with hatred and bitterness. At his age there is room for improving his life. Does this steep sentence have something to do with his ethnicity?

[surrealAmerican]

23. Who made graffiti a felony?

I understand that possession can be a felony depending on how much you have, which is dubious at best, but graffiti?

[petronius]

25. Maybe there's a dollar amount that determines it - if it costs $xxx to clean up,

it becomes a felony? It sounds like he tagged a lot of things, but only got 3 charges, so maybe it was 3 particularly expensive jobs that became felonies...

:shrug:

[Iggo]

38. The story at the link says he did 7300 bucks of damage. (n/t)

[alcibiades_mystery]

43. Graffiti has been upgraded to a felony in many jurisdictions

throughout the late 1990's there was a major push for moving tagging into the felony category. It is a felony, for example, to cause more than $500 damage in graffiti in the City of Chicago. Of course, the cop gets to "estimate" the damage on the spot (and pad his felony arrest record thereby). NYC also has felony graffiti statutes, and now charges taggers with more tags than they were actually "caught" doing, which is really an outrageous practice and just a crazy and dangerous jump in the nature and rules of evidence, in my view.

[petronius]

24. Sounds way over the top. The guy behaved like a jerk for a couple of months,

but restitution, probation, and a pile of community service would do the trick. After all, if the guy likes to paint I'm sure there are plenty of things around town that need painting...

[11 Bravo]

28. Make the little shitstain lick clean every surface he defaced, but ...

8 years seems WAY over the top.

[dysfunctional press]

29. the last few sentences help explain why he got(and deserved) a harsh sentence.

Prosecutor Joe Mike Peña pointed out Perez already had a chance to turn his life around and violated his pretrial supervision.

Deanna McQueen, the department’s graffiti coordinator, said the sentence should send a strong message to other would-be vandals.

after 10 years of owning a two-flat in chicago, i have absolutely ZERO sympathy for taggers.

[winyanstaz]

31. and a child rapist gets the average of around three years......

That this guy gets eight for vandalizm is just plain wrong.
However...I am not happy with the little twit for trying to blame marijuana for his law-breaking.

[Swamp Rat]

32. After 8 years in prison a 'public nuisance' will likely become a 'public menace'.

The judged ought to be disbarred for plain stupidity.

[G_j]

36. he got a scholarship

to crime college.
:-(

[lumpy]

40. Hear hear You're right.

nt

[Greyhound]

33. Gotta love Texas.

Such a wonderful little police state.

[Iggo]

34. You paint other people's shit, you pay the price.

The price seems way too high in this case.

EDIT: He did $7300.00 in damages.

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

44. Well at least he didn't get sent to gitmo.

but Texas is closer.

[upi402]

45. Crime and punishment has lost the plot in this country

The Democrats are so afraid of the Republican name-calling, they will do nothing - as per typical.

[20score]

48. Way too many assholes in this country. (I mean the judge.) This is the kind of reactionary

decision based on anger, like zero tolerance, three strike laws, etc., that do much more harm than good. There is a rational way of looking at this - he destroyed property and should be punished appropriately, like paying a fine and a few hundred hours spent cleaning the city, plus mandatory education for at least two more years.

Or the judge could act like an out of control sadist and destroy a kid's life over vandalism. The judge and the judges defenders are much worse human beings than the 18 year old. (At least for now, odds are he won't be a pleasant person in eight years. Thanks to the reactionaries in the country.)

[walldude]

51. Well thank god... hell, had they let him off easier

he might have gotten a job on wall street and proceeded to steal peoples life savings.

[intheflow]

54. .

:spray:

[Liberal_in_LA]

52. I hate graffiti but this sentence seems unreasonable

[Thickasabrick]

56. Stupid and harsh. He should be sentenced to community service. nt

[KittyWampus]

57. Apparently DU'ers can't read the word HABITUAL. This jackass apparently decided to keep going.

[readmoreoften]

60. How habitual can it be? He's 18. Your juvie record isn't supposed to follow you.

[anigbrowl]

66. So he sprayed paint. It's not like he was mugging people, FFS.

Authoritarians are out in force tonight on this thread. Although I have never put up any graffiti in my life, I am supportive of those who do. 8 years is fucking ridiculous, people get less for armed robbery.

[KittyWampus]

73. You support people damaging others property? You realize how much money it costs to remove tags?

You realize what an insidious effect that crap has on a neighborhood?

And this isn't 'art' graffiti.

It's a human acting like an animal by marking its territory with PAINT that is incredibly hard to remove.

[Iggo]

75. In this case, 7300 bucks.

Eight fucking years.

[anigbrowl]

76. it's a lot less than the economic loss for violent crime against persons.

Having experienced both property damage from graffiti and personal damage from armed robbery, I'd much rather deal with the graffiti.

[Stinky The Clown]

67. Good Kerist ..... what would you do with someone who egged a bus?

You should wear a warning label if you ever get called for jury duty.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

74. or we can understand the difference between a habitual murderer and this

[SalviaBlue]

61. Travesty. eom

[treestar]

62. Just had a local case here where someone got 4 years for a kidnapping

Guess they are lucky they don't live in Texas.

[WeDidIt]

64. Sadly, after eight years in prison

He'll hold a doctorate in criminality.

That kid is destined to be a major criminal, and they are sending him to the place where he wil learn all about it.

Graffiti and pot smoking will be the least of his crimes before he's through.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

69. He'll serve about 2 years.

He should be forced to pay to have all the damage repaired, forced to do community service on the private property he damaged and if he doesn't do all that he should have to do all the time.

[Raine]

70. The vandal should have to scrub

every little bit of paint he sprayed anywhere with a toothbrush, maybe then he'd understand the damage he's done by cleaning it up. :mad:

[old mark]

71. I guess few people bothered to read the article- this kid sprayed at least

a dozen places that have been proven to be his "work", and evidently this is a felony in Texas - he could have got a 2 year sentence for each felony-24 years plus whatever for the pot posession charge. He is 18, legally an adult.

He would have never "paid restitution" - most people sentenced to do that make one or two payments, and conveniently forget the rest.....


Maybe hs will begin to understand what he was doing was harmfull.

mark

[proteus_lives]

72. Sounds to me that he wouldn't stop committing crimes.

If he's a habitual offender then he should go away.