Tagger in Masters Case Gets 20 Days : Crime: David Hillo accepts a plea bargain. His friend Cesar Arce died during a confrontation in Sun Valley.

A tagger who was shot in an incident that inflamed tensions over race and crime in the San Fernando Valley was sentenced Friday to 20 days in County Jail and ordered to perform 60 days of graffiti cleanup after pleading no contest to a misdemeanor vandalism charge.

The sentence was part of a settlement reached between David Hillo, 20, of North Hollywood, and the city attorney’s office. Hillo also pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of trespassing in connection with a July tagging incident in the Santa Monica Mountains.

He received a 20-day jail sentence on that charge, but it will be served concurrently.

Hillo is scheduled to begin serving the sentence on May 26.

A probation violation had also been alleged in the case. But because Hillo was a day away from completing probation when the charges were filed against him, prosecutors agreed to essentially drop that charge as part of the plea agreement.

The charges against Hillo stem from the Jan. 31 incident in which Hillo and his best friend, Cesar Rene Arce, 18, were spray-painting graffiti beneath a freeway overpass in Sun Valley. They were confronted by William Andrew Masters II, who said he was taking his usual late-night walk near his home.

Masters contends that the two men--one allegedly armed with a screwdriver--confronted him and tried to rob him after he wrote down the license plate number of their car. Masters drew a gun from his fanny pack and shot Arce to death and wounded Hillo in the buttocks as he tried to flee.

The district attorney’s office declined to file felony charges against Masters after concluding that he feared for his life and shot in self-defense.

However, the city attorney’s office--which prosecutes misdemeanors--charged Masters with carrying a concealed and loaded weapon. He faces a maximum sentence of 18 months in jail if convicted. His trial begins May 15.

The city attorney’s office also filed vandalism charges against Hillo.

Hillo’s attorney, Luis A. Carillo, had hoped to spare Hillo from going to jail, arguing that his client had already suffered enough by being shot and witnessing the killing of his friend.

But Friday, Carillo said prosecutors insisted on a jail sentence, and the two sides compromised on 20 days. If Hillo had been convicted in a trial, he faced a maximum term of 18 months.

“We didn’t want to take the chance,” Hillo said outside the courtroom. “I’m not looking forward to (going to jail). I just have to do it.”

Hillo also said his tagging days are over and that he would talk to youth groups to encourage kids to stay in school and stay away from tagging.

With Masters’ trial 10 days away, Hillo said Masters should also “do some kind of jail time because I have to do it. That would only be fair.”