Gang Member Sent to Jail for 405 Days

A street gang member was sentenced to 405 days in jail after committing his fourth crime on the same street since 1996, authorities said.

Luis Salazar, 24, of North Hollywood, was also banned from associating with gang members.

Salazar was arrested Nov. 10 when police officers from the North Hollywood Division found him and a group of friends loitering at an apartment complex in the 11400 block of Tiara Street. The complex was posted with signs warning trespassers to stay off the private property.

Salazar was arrested, police said, after it was determined that he was not a resident of the complex.

It was the fourth time in less than two years that Salazar had been arrested and convicted for a crime on Tiara Street, according to a spokesman from City Atty. Jim Hahn’s office. Salazar had been arrested twice previously on the street for trespassing and once for graffiti vandalism. He has also been convicted of spousal battery and drunken driving, according to a spokesman for Hahn, who added that Salazar was serving five years’ probation for the five crimes before the November arrest.

In addition to the jail time, Van Nuys Municipal Court Commissioner Martin Green on Monday ordered Salazar to stay away from Tiara Street between Lankershim Boulevard and Tujunga Avenue and to stop associating with gang members in an effort to break his criminal ties.

“It certainly sends a message to Mr. Salazar that the court and law enforcement agencies are aware of his activities and that they don’t want him back in the neighborhood,” said Ted Goldstein, a spokesman for Hahn’s office.