David Toledo
At first, David Toledo famously said he wanted to break the hands of the guy who was slashing all of his Mayfair neighbors’ car tires in 2012. When a jury determined that Toledo was in fact the tire slasher, a city judge spared him with what some victims viewed as a slap on the wrist — probation.
But the same fact-finder, Common Pleas Court Judge Edward C. Wright, wasn’t so lenient on Monday in re-sentencing Toledo, who violated his probation by repeating his tire-centric vandalism late last year. Wright sent Toledo to prison for three to six years, followed by an additional eight years of probation.
The repeat offender hasn’t been able to keep his nose clean for nearly that long in more than a decade, authorities say.
“We were asking for five to 10 years (in prison), but I think three to six plus eight years probation is adequate to protect society from the defendant,” said Assistant District Attorney Tracie Gaydos, who prosecuted the case along with ADA Lauren McHale. “It is a unique case given the repeated nature of his acts and the victimization of the people closest to him, his neighbors, and his fixation on tires. He constantly goes after tires.”
Much like the last time Wright sentenced him, Toledo, 47, begged not to go to prison. It worked in May 2014 when Wright ordered him to serve two years probation and pay $916 in restitution. Toledo had been accused of 59 charges related to puncturing tires of cars parked in the area of his home on the 4000 block of Aldine St. He denied the accusations but a jury found otherwise, although it convicted him of just 14Â counts.
Toledo eventually moved to the 1600 block of Creston St. in Oxford Circle where, last November, witnesses saw him placing screws and nails beneath the tires of employees of a nearby SEPTA bus depot. In April, he pleaded guilty to possessing an instrument of crime, criminal mischief and harassment. At his sentencing, defense attorney Richard Fuschino called Toledo’s wife and mother to the stand.
“Not to make light of it, but the elevator isn’t going to the top floor,” Yvonne Toledo testified of her husband.
Then a teary-eyed Toledo asked to address the court.
“Please don’t send me to prison,” he begged. “I’ll do any program. Please don’t take me away from my wife. I’ll get any help you want.”
No dice. Wright sentenced Toledo to one to two years on the most recent case, plus two to four years for violating probation on the 2012 case. The prison terms are consecutive, although he could get credit for about six months of time-served. In any case, he’s headed to the state pen.
After the hearing, Gaydos noted that Toledo was arrested in another mischief and harassment case on Erdrick Street in 2005, but found not guilty at a Municipal Court trial. Police previously disclosed that Toledo was living on Creston Street in the mid-1990s when a neighbor filed a private criminal complaint against him claiming that Toledo vandalized his car and house. Toledo also has three drunken-driving convictions from 1998 and ’99, court records show. ••
