Woodland Hills Man Sentenced to Jail for Breaking Windows

An 18-year-old Woodland Hills man was sentenced to 90 days in jail Friday for his role in a window-breaking spree last November along Ventura and Reseda boulevards and Winnetka Avenue.

Jeffrey S. Buice, a courier for a graphics company, pleaded guilty in March to one count of felony vandalism in the spree, in which he and two friends used steel ball bearings to smash car and store windows.

Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Alan B. Haber ordered Buice jailed immediately and also placed him on probation for three years and ordered him to make restitution estimated at $10,000.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Bradford E. Stone said he could discern no motive for the spree but said it was “too high on the prankish scale to be tolerable.”

On Nov. 8 and Nov. 20, the trio secured wheel bearings from a junkyard, Stone said, then traveled along West San Fernando Valley streets firing the steel balls through windows with slingshots.

Charges against Michael Lord, 18, of Tarzana, who also was accused in the window-breaking, were dismissed Thursday on what Stone said was a technicality. The prosecutor said new charges would be filed.

The third person charged in the spree, a 17-year-old Tarzana boy, was sentenced Friday in Sylmar Juvenile Court to six months on probation.

Police said the suspects were arrested after a witness saw their van leaving a business in which a window had been shot out.