Were the Cans Turned on a Tagger?

Walter Castro’s defense in his trial on vandalism charges was a simple turnabout: He wasn’t the tagger, he was the tagged.

On the second part of that statement at least, the prosecution agrees.

As they watched Castro, a Central Los Angeles resident, spray graffiti on a Santa Monica Boulevard light pole in east Hollywood on July 15, Castro was beset by two assailants--apparently rival taggers who regarded him as infringing on their turf, police said. The pair spray-painted him on both sides of his head and on his sweat shirt, a Los Angeles police officer testified Wednesday at Castro’s trial in Van Nuys Municipal Court.

“As I arrived at the location, Mr. Castro stood up and I saw the paint on him,” said Officer Gregory Davidson, who also testified that Castro threw away a spray-paint can as officers approached.

“The tagger got tagged,” summarized Deputy City Atty. Janet Ramos, the prosecutor.

While the two men who painted Castro escaped into the night, he was arrested and charged with misdemeanor vandalism.

Ramos urged the jury not to sympathize with Castro’s predicament: “The poor kid got tagged himself” but “that does not negate the fact this defendant painted graffiti on the light post.”

Castro’s attorney, Cynthia Belletini, argued that he did not deface the pole, but was minding his own business when two spray-paint vigilantes attacked him.

After Belletini suggested that Castro’s arm movements as he stood by the pole did not necessarily prove he was spraying graffiti, the prosecutor laughingly suggested that Belletini was asking the jury to believe that Castro was having a conversation with the pole, or perhaps cleaning up graffiti instead of leaving it.

Jury deliberations will continue today. If convicted, Castro, a 19-year-old Guatemalan immigrant, faces a maximum sentence of six months in jail.