Inspector Lost Eye : Northridge Man Gets 7-Year Term in Assault Case

A San Fernando Superior Court judge said Wednesday that a Northridge auto mechanic had no remorse for putting out the eye of a Los Angeles building inspector, and sentenced the man to seven years in prison.

Judge Meredith C. Taylor imposed the maximum term on Samuel Duran, 41, after Deputy Dist. Atty. Kenneth L. Barshop read excerpts from a letter Duran had written to the judge. Duran wrote that the city inspector, Calvin W. O’Daniels, 62, “is complaining about his eye. He is lucky he didn’t get shot instead. . . .”

Duran, who asked the judge for leniency in the letter, also wrote that O’Daniels “came to rearrange my attitude. Believe me, he tried. He got his face rearranged, instead.”

Taylor also fined Duran $5,000. Duran was convicted March 29 of one count each of mayhem and assault with a deadly weapon stemming from the May 11 attack on O’Daniels.

O’Daniels was beaten outside Duran’s home in the 19000 block of Community Street during an inspection of Duran’s improperly built fence, authorities said. O’Daniels had told Duran the fence was too tall. O’Daniels right eye had to be surgically removed as a result of the attack, and he has lost 50% of the vision in his left eye, according to testimony during the trial.

Letters to Judge

Duran’s wife, Theresa, and his two children wept as Duran was sentenced. Each had written letters to the judge saying Duran was a model husband and father.

But Taylor said the economic and emotional hardships the family will suffer as a result of Duran’s imprisonment are overridden by his lack of contrition and the viciousness of the attack on O’Daniels.

“I believe Mr. Duran is smugly satisfied with what he did,” Taylor said.

O’Daniels, in court for the sentencing, said he was disappointed that the judge had not complied with his request that Duran be imprisoned without the possibility of parole. The judge said, however, he could not legally impose such a sentence. Duran could be paroled in 3 1/2 years, Taylor said.

Duran, who has maintained throughout the proceedings that O’Daniels initiated the attack after demanding a bribe, had the last word at the sentencing hearing.

“I won’t pay a damn penny to this court,” Duran said as he was escorted out of the courtroom.