3 held in graffiti-linked slaying of grandmother
By Andrew Blankstein
Times Staff Writer

11:30 AM PDT, August 15, 2007

Sheriff’s deputies today arrested three people in connection with the death of a 57-year-old grandmother who was shot after confronting a man tagging a wall in Pico Rivera, a case that has sparked widespread anger.

Maria Hicks died Monday from a gunshot wound to the head that she suffered after a confrontation Friday night.

Hicks was driving home near the intersection of San Gabriel River Parkway and Woodford Street when she noticed a young man tagging a wall, sheriff’s officials said. She flashed her lights and honked her horn at the suspected tagger, who began walking away.

Hicks continued to follow him, sheriff’s officials said, and two people in a silver compact car drove up behind her and fired several shots through her back window, gravely wounding her.

She died three days later. The case was sparked outrage in Pico Rivera and beyond.

Sheriff’s homicide detectives arrested Cesar Lopez, 19, of Pico Rivera, who is being held without bail after being charged with murder.

Jennifer Tafoya, 19, of Pico Rivera and a 16-year-old boy whose identity was withheld because he is a juvenile were arrested on probation violations.

Sheriff’s detectives said they also were looking for two men in their late teens, and were trying to find the car used in the shooting, described as a blue Lincoln Continental.

Responding to a surge in graffiti, Los Angeles County prosecutors, Caltrans and the California Highway Patrol are teaming up to target what officials say has become the prime canvas for taggers: freeways. Prosecutors have lowered the amount of monetary damages that must be committed by a tagger to warrant felony charges, saying the change will make it easier to prosecute vandals.

At the same time, the CHP and the Los Angeles Police Department are staking out freeways frequented by taggers, hoping to catch them in the act.

Los Angeles cleanup crews removed 27 million square feet of graffiti last year, up from 21 million square feet in 2005, officials said. In other areas of Los Angeles County, 13 million square feet of walls and other surfaces were cleaned, 4 million more than in the previous year, county public works records show.

Sheriff’s homicide detectives asked that anyone with information about the slaying to call 323-890-5500.

andrew.blankstein@latimes.com