Newly Freed, Tagger Again Faces Charges

David Hillo was back in court facing new graffiti vandalism charges Monday, less than two weeks after completing a jail stay for the graffiti incident in which he was shot and his partner killed by William Masters, a gun-carrying passerby.

The 20-year-old North Hollywood resident was taken into custody Thursday along with six teen-agers. Authorities said they had been caught tagging by police and a citizen surveillance group in the area of Kester Avenue and Sherman Way, the intersection where three friends were killed earlier in the week when their car was hit by an auto driven by a burglary suspect fleeing police.

Police said the group had done about $20,000 in damage throughout the neighborhood in a graffiti spree that was meant as a tribute to their dead friends.

“Hillo was tagging in memorial to the three kids who were killed. . . . It had something to do with ‘rest in peace,’ ” Los Angeles Police Detective Craig Rhudy said.

“I would say it was an inappropriate way for them to express their grief,” Rhudy said. “They were destroying public and private property.”

Arrested along with Hillo were Jerry Gamboa, 19, of North Hollywood; Jose Ricardo Mejia, 18, of Glendale, and four juveniles.

Hillo is accused of scribbling on a city lamp standard with a marking pen, Mejia of spray painting on the sidewalk and Gamboa of etching on the windows of a nearby business.

Each of them could be sentenced to up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. Gamboa was also charged with a count of giving false information for supplying police with a bogus name.

Gamboa and Hillo are scheduled to be arraigned in Van Nuys Municipal Court on Wednesday, Deputy City Atty. Rick Schmidt said. Mejia pleaded not guilty to vandalism Monday and his trial is set for July 10.

Schmidt said his office has also requested that a judge revoke Hillo’s probation stemming from a July 15, 1994, case in which he was cited for trespassing by authorities who found him at a graffiti scene in the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy Area with marking pencils in his pocket.

City prosecutors also want his probation revoked in connecton with the vandalism case that triggered the incident with Masters. Hillo and a friend, Cesar Arce, were tagging under a Hollywood Freeway overpass Jan. 31 when they got into a confrontation with Masters, who fatally shot Arce and slightly wounded Hillo.

Masters, who said they tried to rob him and threatened him with a screwdriver, was not charged with murder or manslaughter, but does face misdmeanor charges of carrying a loaded, concealed weapon. Hillo has denied they threatened Masters or meant to rob him.

Hillo was sentenced to 20 days in jail as punishment for the graffiti vandalism that preceeded the shooting, but when he failed to surrender as ordered on May 26, a warrant was issued for his arrest and he was later taken into custody at his home.

Another 20-day jail term was tacked onto the sentence as a result, but because of jail overcrowding, Hillo was released after serving just 12 days of his 40-day sentence, Schmidt said.

“I’m hard pressed to remember anybody who violated his probation so quickly and so often,” Schmidt said. Hillo could face up to another 320 days in jail if he is found to have violated his probation.

Supporters of Hillo and Arce told reporters that they planned to hold a mock funeral Monday evening outside Van Nuys Municipal Court. They said they were going to camp out overnight in front of the courthouse and confront Masters, whose trial is scheduled to begin this morning.