GRAFFITI VANDAL FACING A YEAR IN JAIL FOLLOWING CONVICTION ON FELONY CHARGES OF CRIMINAL MISCHIEF

Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnson announced today that a 22 year old Bronx man who used cans of spray paint to damage private property has been convicted on multiple counts of criminal mischief.

Brian Gonzalez, of 3185 East Tremont Avenue, pled guilty to two counts of Criminal Mischief in the 2nd degree, a Class D felony offense and two counts of Criminal Mischief in the 4th degree, a Class A misdemeanor offense. State Supreme Court Justice Lawrence Bernstein set sentencing for March 8, 2007 in Part 20, Justice Bernstein has indicated that Gonzalez will be sentenced to a term of one year in jail although the People are recommending that Gonzalez be imprisoned for a term of 2 to 6 years. District Attorney Johnson said that today’s conviction on felony charges would expose Gonzalez to a stiffer sentence as a predicate offender should he be convicted of graffiti related offenses in the future. Gonzalez has been the subject of numerous complaints primarily by residents and merchants in the Throggs Neck community. His tags were left on highway signs, highway overpasses, and subway cars among other locations.

Gonzalez admitted using cans of spray paint to deface private property on four separate occasions between October 2004 and November 2005. Gonzalez spray painted his ‘tag’ Cheez across the front and side walls of a Freshway Supermarket at 3041 Bruckner Boulevard in the Throggs Neck section of the Bronx. The tag was 300 feet long. Sometime in the Fall of 2005 Gonzalez spray painted a retaining wall of the Metro North Railroad on Webster Avenue adjacent to Woodlawn Cemetery. The wall was defaced with two tags that were approximately ten feet high and twenty feet long. Gonzalez also admitted spray painting graffiti on the side of a commercial building at 2351 Westchester Avenue on October 11, 2005 and on a storefront at 1560 Castle Hill Avenue on November 5, 2005.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Richard Kearney.