Men Get 5 Years in Window-Shattering Rampage

The two Los Angeles men charged in connection with last year’s nerve-rattling rampage of more than 250 window-smashing attacks on Southland freeways were sentenced Tuesday to five years in prison.

Jose Soto, 21, and Hugo Hernandez, 22, each pleaded no contest to two counts of assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury and one count of a felon in possession of a firearm. Although the rash of window shatterings drew national attention, the sentencing Tuesday barely drew notice.

Their pleas, before Superior Court Judge Charles E. Horan, mean that Soto--on probation for receiving stolen property in 1993--and Hernandez--on probation for felony joy riding in 1994--will probably be freed from state prison in just over two years. If they had gone to trial, they had faced the possibility of eight-year prison sentences that would have meant at least four years in prison.

“I think it is a fair sentence,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Renee Cartaya said after the proceedings. “I think if we had gone to trial we would have prevailed, but you never know what sentence would be [imposed].”

Hernandez’s attorney, Michael Russo, declined to comment. Deputy Public Defender Ramon Qunitana, who represented Soto, said: “It wasn’t a settlement we were happy with. But when push came to shove, it was the best we could do.”

In October, prosecutors filed 11 felony counts against Soto and Hernandez stemming from three of the 250-plus window shatterings that occurred along Los Angeles freeways between Sept. 11 and Oct. 10. The rash of incidents virtually ended after the pair’s Oct. 9 arrests, authorities said.

Then and now, authorities have never said the men were responsible for all of the shootings, which not only terrified many motorists but prompted the California Highway Patrol to dispatch as many as 200 cars some nights along local freeways. (Normally, the CHP said, only 25 to 30 cars patrol area freeways on a given evening.)

But law enforcement officials believe that the pair were responsible for the preponderance of the incidents, pointing to the sharp drop that came after the arrests.

“With any high-profile crime like this, it seems like you will always get some copycats,” CHP spokesman Rob Lund said Tuesday. “But this [freeway shooting] activity virtually ceased after these two were arrested.”

Prosecutor Cartaya added: “Based on statements from one defendant [Hernandez], I think they were responsible for most of the attacks but not all of them. There were some copycats.”

During the pair’s December preliminary hearing, Cartaya produced testimony that the defendants had the sort of weapons believed used in the attacks.

Acting on a tip to a telephone hot line set up by the CHP, Officers Steve Reyes and Phil Navarro said they went to a neighborhood south of downtown Los Angeles and saw a yellow Dodge van, similar to one described by the anonymous caller, sitting on the front lawn of a residence.

At the home, Reyes testified, the officers found several weapons including a sawed-off shotgun, a .9-millimeter handgun and two BB rifles. Inside the van, authorities testified, they not only found numerous dents caused by BB pellets but a newspaper story about the freeway shootings.

At the preliminary hearing, a deputy sheriff at the Men’s Central Jail also testified that Hernandez allegedly bragged--one day after his arrest--about his involvement in the freeway shooting incidents.

“He stated that he was a freeway vandal and asked if I had seen him on TV,” jailer Jason Skeen testified.

When another deputy questioned Hernandez’s remarks, Skeen added, the defendant insisted that he was not just bragging to get attention.

“He replied it wasn’t like that, that he originally bought the gun, the BB gun, to shoot at cats and dogs and that he became bored with that and that he moved to shooting at parked cars,” Skeen said.

But the “ultimate rush” came from shooting out windows on the freeway, Skeen said he was told by Hernandez, who also allegedly said he would like to see his crimes covered on television and in the newspapers.

“He stated that eventually he would like to go on a TV show like “Geraldo” and/or “Hard Copy” in order to receive money to pay back the victims he had caused damage to,” Skeen testified.