Teen Suspects’ Father Cited for Vandalism : Crime: Thomas Miller, whose sons face charges in murder of 14-year-old Carl Dan Claes over stereo system, admits to spray-painting police station.

The father of a teen-ager accused of killing another boy over a stereo was arrested for vandalism Monday after he allegedly spray-painted “Bloods killed Karl” on the police station, apparently in reference to the victim, police said.

Thomas D. Miller, 51, was cited and released from the Tustin Police Department after undercover officers arrested him as he spray-painted the same words on an apartment building on Bryan Avenue about 3 p.m., police said.

After he was taken to the Police Department, the father told police he also had spray-painted the front of the station’s building. Officers checked and discovered “Bloods killed Karl” painted in red, 18-inch-high letters near the entrance.

“I said, ‘You spray-painted where ?’ And I went out and looked and it was there,” Sgt. Steve Lewis said.

The word “Bloods” apparently refers to the Los Angeles-based street gang, Lewis said. “Karl” appears to refer to Carl Dan Claes, the 14-year-old Tustin boy authorities say was killed during a dispute with Miller’s son over a $2,500 stereo system.

Lewis said the father had been drinking “and his thought processes weren’t all there.”

He said Miller was upset about his sons’ legal travails. Miller’s son, Tommy Miller, 16, is charged with murder along with another youth for Claes’ shooting death in May.

A second Miller son, who is 15, is among four others--three of them juveniles--facing charges of being accessories after the fact.

It was not Thomas Miller’s first scrape with the law. He pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon after a 1984 incident in which he stabbed his ex-wife in the leg while under a restraining order, according to court records. He was sentenced to 130 days in jail and three years’ probation.

A year later, Thomas Miller, a former tile worker, was arrested again by Tustin police for violating a second restraining order and was ordered to spend another 36 days in jail.

Thomas Miller has attended his sons’ court hearings.

Claes was found dead May 17 on a dirt path in the affluent Lemon Heights community about three miles from the Tustin house where he lived with his grandfather. He was shot once at close range with a .22-caliber handgun, police said.

Claes had lent his mobile sound system to Tommy Miller about a week before the slaying, and police say a dispute arose when Miller refused to return it, investigators said.

Tommy Miller is accused of pulling the trigger. Police allege that a second youth, Jason Merritt, now 18, accompanied Tommy Miller and was waiting nearby when the shooting took place. The two were ordered Friday to stand trial as adults. As an adult, Tommy Miller could face up to life in state prison without possibility of parole, if convicted. Merritt faces a maximum sentence of 25 years to life if he is found guilty.

Tommy Miller’s 15-year-old brother faces trial in juvenile court later this month for his alleged role as an accessory.