Tagger Gets 2 1/2-Year Jail Term in Plea Bargain : Courts: Agreement resolves series of charges that have piled up since his friend was shot to death in a much-publicized incident.

David Hillo, the tagger whose friend was shot to death in a January confrontation with a passerby in Sun Valley, was sentenced to nearly 2 1/2 years in jail Wednesday for crimes ranging from grand theft to vandalism.

The 905-day sentence came as a result of a plea bargain that resolves a series of charges that have piled up against the 21-year-old since his friend, Cesar Arce, was shot to death at a freeway overpass where they were spraying graffiti.

Municipal Judge Leslie Dunn said she was “reluctantly” going along with the deal worked out between the defense and prosecution. She told Hillo that if he violates the smallest condition of probation after his release from County Jail, “I will not hesitate to send you to state prison.”

Hillo admitted two probation violations and pleaded no contest to a count of vandalism. He also pleaded no contest to grand theft from a person in connection with the theft of eyedrops and cold medicine from a Van Nuys supermarket in June.

He was originally charged with robbery for allegedly punching the store’s security guard, but that charge was reduced because the guard was uninjured and the theft was minor, prosecutors said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. James Bozajian called Wednesday’s sentence appropriate, adding that this encounter with the law should be the last time Hillo avoids prison. “His criminal activity is escalating,” Bozajian said.

Hillo, a tall, shy man known as a follower rather than a leader, has been at the center of a series of high-profile cases. In January, he and Arce were painting graffiti under a freeway overpass when they got into a dispute with William A. Masters II.

Masters said he was writing down the license plate of their car when Arce and Hillo threatened him with a screwdriver and tried to rob him. Hillo denied threatening Masters.

In the ensuing confrontation, Masters shot and killed Arce and wounded Hillo. The district attorney’s office declined to file murder charges against Masters, citing inconsistencies in Hillo’s statements. That decision aroused anger among Latino activists, who said it showed a law enforcement bias.

The confrontation became a symbol of the public’s anger over graffiti and minority complaints about the justice system.

After Arce’s death, Hillo continued to find trouble. In June, he was arrested with six others and charged with vandalism for allegedly marking up the area near Sherman Way and Kester Avenue in Van Nuys.

Several of the group’s friends had been killed at that intersection when a burglary suspect fleeing police slammed into their car, a case that brought renewed scrutiny of the Police Department’s pursuit policy. Police said Hillo and his friends were tagging “something to do with ‘rest in peace.’ ”

After that arrest, a judge ordered Hillo held without bail, citing his history of repeated run-ins with the law. But in a decision that sparked yet another controversy, Hillo was released because of jail overcrowding.

Los Angeles City Atty. James Hahn made an issue of Hillo’s release, warning that the policy allowing him to be set free threatened a “complete breakdown of law and order” in the city. Sheriff Sherman Block blamed a loophole in his jail crowding policy and said the release was a mistake that would not be repeated.

Within three hours, Hillo was rearrested and charged with robbing the Van Nuys supermarket. Friends said Hillo stole the medication to treat a cold he contracted in jail.

Hillo’s attorney, David Kestenbaum, said Arce’s death sent Hillo into a downward spiral that culminated in Wednesday’s sentence--a situation exacerbated by the fact that the mother of Hillo’s 2-year-old child recently left him and moved to Arizona.