A man who was arrested last year for allegedly spray-painting swastikas backward on vehicles in the Los Angeles area has pleaded no contest to two felony counts of vandalism.
Robert Lee Haymore, 38, was immediately sentenced to 32 months in state prison following his plea Tuesday, according to Deputy District Attorney Heather Steggell.
A restitution hearing is set in September in connection with the damage to the two vehicles in Los Angeles last Sept. 29. He is also facing restitution to the owners of six other vehicles that were damaged, even though vandalism charges involving those vehicles were dismissed as a result of a plea agreement, the prosecutor said.
Nine counts of attempted hate crime of displaying a Nazi symbol on private property were also dismissed.
The prosecutor said there was insufficient evidence to show that Haymore was trying to target the Jewish community, noting that the owners of the vehicles were predominantly not Jewish. The crimes did not occur in a predominantly Jewish community and it did not appear that Haymore was targeting any particular religion based on his background and all of the available evidence, the deputy district attorney said.
The backward swastika has no known significance, Steggell said.
Haymore has remained behind bars since his arrest early last October, and was held briefly in a state mental hospital before he was deemed mentally competent to stand trial, jail records show.