Man faces charges for vandalism
Churches among 23 sites spray painted
 Lancaster police have charged a man in connection with a rash of spray-paint incidents in the city's northeast section.
Darryl Lee Hanna, 44, of 331 E. Marion St., has been charged with five counts of institutional vandalism which, because they involved churches, is a felony, and multiple misdemeanor and summary counts of criminal mischief in connection with 23 incidents of vandalism.
Known damages exceed $4,500.
Lancaster city police Lt. Todd Umstead said the markings included words like "Turbo," "Fake" and "Mormon," pictures such as faces and a four-leaf clover and symbols, including a swastika. The markings were in red or blue spray paint or permanent black marker.
Umstead called the seemingly random assortment of words and symbols "odd."
"A lot of time we'll get somebody who's spray-painting and they'll have maybe one or two signature tags. This was a whole myriad of pictures and words and symbols that don't really connect."
The incidents took place in the city's northeast area between January and March 17. It was on that day that Hannah was spotted by the Lancaster Community Safety Coalition acting suspiciously in the 100 block of East Chestnut and the 200 block of North Cherry streets.
"We knew it was going on, and we increased patrols in that area," Umstead said. "We notified the coalition that this was going on and asked them to be on the lookout for this type of thing."
Alerted by the coalition, police picked up Hannah, who was carrying a can of blue spray paint, in the 300 block of East Marion Street. He was taken to police headquarters for questioning and later released without charges.
"It was as a result of that interview that we began to focus on this individual," Umstead said.
The vandalism stopped but the lengthy investigation continued, leading up to Hannah's arrest Friday.
"A lot of things hadn't even been reported to us," Umstead said. "(Detective Michael) Gerace had to go out and look for locations. Oftentimes the location had been spray painted but the victim hadn't come forward yet, so he had to do a lot of backtracking, and he was eventually able to tie all of these incidents to the individual."
Locations identified and estimated damages are:
• 37 E. Marion St. — unknown damage amount.
• 119 N. Duke St. — unknown damage amount.
• 137 E. Marion St. — unknown damage amount.
• 115 N. Duke St. - unknown damage amount.
• 119 N. Duke St. - unknown damage amount.
• 148 E. Walnut St. — $1,351.
• 214 E. Marion St. — $130.
• 241 E. Orange St. — $200.
• 219 N. Duke St. — $578.99.
• 230 E. Marion St. — $500.
• 230 E. Marion St. — $500.
• 207 E. Orange St. — $100.
• 215 E. Orange St. — $78.
• 127 E. Orange St. — $100.
• 236 E. Marion St. — $100.
• 111 E. Chestnut St. — $63.93.
• 214 E. Marion St. — $130.
• 227 E. Orange St. — $100.
• 240 E. Marion St. — $114.21.
• 125 E. Chestnut St. — $265.
• 221 N. Cherry St. — $130.
• 221 N. Cherry St. — $130.
• 240 E. Marion St. — $150.
Hannah was charged before District Judge Janice Jimenez and released on $50,000 unsecured bail.
Courtesy of Lancaster Newspapers, Intelligencer Journal / Lancaster New Era
June 18, 2010
E-mail Larry Alexander: lalexander@lnpnews.com |
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