21-year-old will serve jail time for graffiti spree.

Byline: BILL BISHOP The Register-Guard

One of the community's top five graffiti vandals, 21-year-old Justin Stephen Tyler, was sentenced Thursday to a year in jail, five years on probation and 100 hours of community service cleaning up graffiti.

Lane County Circuit Judge Lyle Velure lectured Tyler about the public and private costs of "cleaning up after little boys out there acting like jerks." But the judge offered to parole Tyler after six months and to forgive $880 in attorney fees if Tyler shows he has a plan for getting an education and pursuing an adult lifestyle.

Velure acknowledged the cost of jailing Tyler - estimated at $95 per day - but said it's important for graffiti vandals to know the potential consequences of their crimes.

"This court is not going to tolerate this. I'll spend the money to send the message," Velure said. "It boggles my mind."

He asked Tyler what motivated him to spray-paint the word "Moves," adorned with an arrow, a question mark and a circle, on other people's property. Court records show Tyler repeatedly sprayed the moniker on mostly commercial and city property in an area bounded by 11th and 18th avenues and Polk and Chambers streets. But his mark also turned up in the downtown area on several occasions.

"It's something that starts out as being young and wanting to fit in. It's a popularity game with your friends," Tyler said.

"It's a stupid popularity game," Velure replied. "Don't you fit in yet? What are you doing with your life? You went to college for two years and you're still out painting buildings like an 11-year-old."

Tyler told the judge he has no more desire to do graffiti. "I've had time to think about this," he said. "It's not something worth doing the time for. I really want to get a job, get ahead. I don't want to be a part of the prison system."

Tyler pleaded guilty to one felony count of criminal mischief and four misdemeanor counts. In exchange, the prosecutor agreed not to file similar charges for dozens of other acts of graffiti vandalism linked to Tyler. The case had been scheduled for trial Wednesday.

No one tracks the total cost of cleaning up graffiti and replacing acid-etched glass, but several of Tyler's victims told Velure that their agencies spend many thousands each year while private property owners pay insurance deductibles and higher premiums to cover the damage.

Tony Jopanek, street sanitation supervisor for Eugene, said he has one employee whose full-time job is cleaning up after graffiti vandals. He said his office gets 600 requests each month to repair graffiti damage.

John Brown, a downtown property owner and Eugene Police Commission member, told Velure that 1,500 acts of graffiti vandalism are reported annually in downtown - half on public property.

Detective Greg Calef, who said he collects graffiti reports out of personal interest in the crime, told the judge that five suspects do a disproportionately large amount of damage.

"This defendant is in that top five," Calef said.

Tyler was caught literally red-handed, Deputy District Attorney Kamala Shugar said.

After a resident along the bike path near Garfield Park reported vandalism, police found Tyler nearby with a backpack full of spray-paint cans and red paint on his hands, she said.

The resident, Stephen Pickering, said Tyler was the fifth graffiti vandal he has turned in.

"Every one of them has gone to jail. They spend a couple of days. They're not as extreme as this one," Pickering said.

"In one night in my neighborhood, he did more graffiti than all the other taggers in a year and a half. We're tired of how it makes our community look trashy and degraded," Pickering told the judge.

After the hearing, Pickering urged people to call police anytime they see someone painting graffiti so the prolific ones can be caught.

"It's the four or five like this guy that people are looking for, the guy who spends the entire evening several times a week. It's got to stop," he said. "It ruins a beautiful community."