Teen-Ager Gets 8 Years for Graffiti Vandalism : Court: It’s the harshest punishment ever given to a tagger in the state. Judge says youth apparently can’t control compulsion to deface property.

A 15-year-old Oxnard graffiti vandal has been sentenced to the California Youth Authority for eight years and four months, the harshest punishment ever given a tagger in California, officials said Thursday.

Ventura County Superior Court Judge Steven Z. Perren handed down the sentence Wednesday, prosecutors said, adding that the judge said the teen-ager apparently is unable to control a compulsion to deface property.

The boy, whose name was not released because he is a minor, had 11 prior misdemeanor graffiti convictions and has caused more than $10,000 in damage, Deputy Dist. Atty. John Cordoza said.

Perren had given the boy one more opportunity to stop tagging after he was arrested in August for multiple acts of graffiti vandalism, Cordoza said.

But three days after Perren made that decision, the youth pulled metal springs from his Juvenile Hall bed and etched his moniker onto walls, books and a light fixture in his room, Cordoza said.

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Cordoza, who asked for the stiff sentence, said there was “no joy” in putting the juvenile away. But something had to be done, he said.

“There was no other way to get the minor to stop damaging property,” he said.

Perren’s sentence was hailed by some Oxnard residents, who called it a tough but much-needed response to the spiraling problem of graffiti vandalism in cities throughout the state.

“Some murderers have gotten less time, but this sentence will cross Ventura County’s borders and be heard throughout the state and even the nation,” said Mel Ott, who leads a residents’ graffiti patrol in the south Oxnard neighborhood where the tagger lived.

“I think it’s fantastic,” he said.

But one Oxnard activist called Perren’s order an “overzealous approach” to punishing graffiti vandals. Tagging is not a violent crime, Carlos Aguilera said.

“There is a craze out in the community that all taggers need to be locked up,” Aguilera said. “And I don’t think that is necessarily the right answer.”

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Aguilera said he would prefer to see the youth enrolled in a program that emphasizes parental supervision and counseling. Oxnard Mayor Manuel Lopez, who has lobbied for tougher punishment for graffiti vandals, said the length of the youth’s sentence also discomforted him.

“It seems a bit harsh to me,” Lopez said. “It seems like there would be other ways to reach him.”

Cordoza declined to comment on the teen-ager’s home life, saying he did not want to invade the family’s privacy. But an Oxnard detective who monitors graffiti throughout the city said he began noticing the youth’s tags in late 1992.

Since then, the teen-ager has doggedly marked up walls, light posts, windows and signs, particularly in the Cal-Gisler neighborhood where he lived, Detective Steven Vendt said. Officials refused to identify the youth’s monikers, saying they did not want to give him the publicity.

“Taggers want to become famous and this is the way they do it,” Vendt said.

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The youth was not a member of a gang and usually worked alone at night, Vendt said. The detective said he believes the youth is responsible for scores of other graffiti incidents that he was unable to prove.

Vendt said he was able to gather the evidence needed for prosecution by enlisting the help of the Cal-Gisler Neighborhood Watch. Ott leads the group’s graffiti patrol, which goes out at night searching for taggers and taking pictures when they get the chance, Ott said.

Since the youth was arrested, graffiti in the neighborhood has diminished considerably, said Ralph Vester, chairman of the Cal-Gisler Neighborhood Watch.

“I think he liked to be caught once in a while,” Vester said. “That’s just my feeling. It was like a dare to the neighborhood.”

Michael van Winkle, a spokesman in the state attorney general’s office, said Perren’s sentence is the toughest he has ever heard for a graffiti vandal. It is often difficult to prosecute taggers because they work quickly at night, he said.

“This is only the second or third time I have heard of a real sentence for a graffiti vandal,” he said.

Daniel Bernardo Ramos, who spray-painted his graffiti tag “Chaka” on walls from Orange County to San Francisco, received 90 days in a sheriff’s diversion program and 900 hours of community service for his violations.

Los Angeles authorities believe the infamous tagger left up to 10,000 marks around the state. His last conviction came after he tagged a courthouse elevator wall on his way to see his attorney.

Prosecutor Cordova said the convicted Oxnard tagger is entitled to a parole hearing in a year. If the youth serves his full term, he would not be released until he is 23 years old.