A Mayfair Tire Slasher Facing Up to 15 Years in Prison

There wasn’t as much snow back in the winter in 2012 — there were 23.4 fewer inches of snow in January 2012 than this year — but things weren’t so balmy in the Mayfair section of Philadelphia. Tires were being slashed on a constant basis.

The loudest neighbor on the news was usually David Toledo, a Mayfair resident who lived on the 4000 block of Aldine Street. “It’s somebody that I believe is on this block,” he told NBC 10 of the tire slasher, “absolutely.” In April of 2012, Toledo was arrested and charged with slashing dozens of tires. “Toledo was a self-proclaimed Block Watch volunteer who allegedly ultimately betrayed everyone,” CBS 3 reported.

(Although it didn’t attract as much attention, I believe this was a better story than the Mayfair Swiss Cheese Pervert.)

Yesterday, the jury came down with a verdict for Toledo: Not guilty on 45 of 60 counts! Unfortunately for Toledo, that’s still 15 guilty verdicts — 12 for criminal mischief, 2 for possession of an instrument of crime and 1 for filing a false police report. And now Toledo is facing 7 and a half to 15 years in prison, the Daily News‘ Mensah Dean reports:

“It’s sad, because this is a situation in which these people were waking up every morning not knowing if they were going to be able to go to work or school or to doctors’ appointments,” Assistant District Attorney Tracie Gaydos said of Toledo’s neighbors.

Gaydos said Toledo’s motivation seemed to be to “get his name out there, so he could get media attention. At the same time, he was torturing these people on a daily basis,” Gaydos added.

I’ve had some neighbors I wanted to send to prison for inconveniencing me; too bad they weren’t serial tire slashers.

Although he’s facing so many charges, Toledo’s attorney was optimistic outside court yesterday: “The jury, by its verdict, seems to have found that he damaged some tires… but to call David Toledo the ‘Mayfair Tire Slasher’ now would be unfair.” Please note that my headline is “A Mayfair Tire Slasher,” to note that there may still be other tire slashers out there — ones who haven’t acted in years but will re-emerge, cicada-like, to slash tires once again.

Toledo is out on bail and will be sentenced in March. Here’s guessing he doesn’t get the full 15 years.