Local News in Brief : Assailant Gets 7 Years

Describing the defendant as “smugly satisfied” with his crime, a San Fernando Superior Court judge Wednesday sentenced a Northridge auto mechanic to seven years in prison for putting out the eye of a Los Angeles building inspector who told him that his fence was too tall.

Judge Meredith C. Taylor imposed the maximum term on Samuel Duran, 41, who wrote a letter to the judge commenting that the city inspector “is complaining about his eye. He is lucky he didn’t get shot instead. . . .”

Duran also wrote that the inspector, Calvin W. O’Daniels, 62, “came to rearrange my attitude. Believe me, he tried. He got his face rearranged, instead.”

But Duran asked for leniency in the letter, which was read in court by Deputy Dist. Atty. Kenneth L. Barshop.

Duran, who was convicted March 29 on one count each of mayhem and assault with a deadly weapon, also was fined $5,000.

O’Daniels was punched and struck with a shoe last May 11 outside Duran’s home during an inspection of the fence. His right eye had to be surgically removed as a result of the incident, and he has lost 50% of the vision in his left eye, according to testimony during the trial.