Traverse City Record-Eagle

Grand Traverse County

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May 29, 2009

Teen BB gun vandal sentenced

Leiter, 17, gets five months in jail

BY ART BUKOWSKI

TRAVERSE CITY -- Kyle Leiter doesn't want to be remembered as the mastermind.

Leiter and his attorney told Circuit Judge Philip E. Rodgers he was involved in only three days of a lengthy window-shooting spree that authorities said racked up more than $50,000 in damage in and around Traverse City late last year.

And Leiter, 17, said he merely drove a vehicle while his friends, Stephen Pina and Tyler Briegel, popped off round after round from high-powered BB pistols at area windows.

But Rodgers said he wasn't much concerned with Leiter's specific role. More significant, he said, was Leiter's decision to repeatedly involve himself in the activity.

"I'll give you the first night," Rodgers said Friday. "The problem I'm having is with nights two and three, where you had an opportunity to reflect ... why are you in the car on nights two and three?"

Leiter's attorney, David Clark, characterized the group's conduct as "punkish, foolish behavior that got out of control."

Leiter told Rodgers he "wasn't thinking."

"It never should have happened in the first place," he said.

Rodgers sentenced Leiter to five months in jail and five years of probation on a count of malicious destruction of property between $1,000 and $20,000 and a count of malicious destruction of a building in the same amount.

Last month, he sentenced Pina to 10 months in jail and five years of probation on similar charges. Juvenile court is handling Briegel's case.

"You're driving these guys around, and they're spreading this path of anger and surprise and frustration, and in several instances, danger to others ... with apparently not a second thought," he told Leiter. "What did you think the likely consequences of this would be?"

The rear window of Grand Traverse County Commissioner Christine Maxbauer's vehicle was shot out Christmas Eve. The front window was shot out on Christmas. She spoke at the sentencing to show "there are faces to go" with what the group did.

"I just want you to understand that when you do something like this and destroy someone's property, you destroy what they've worked for," she said to Leiter.

Grand Traverse County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Jim Pappas pointed out that although Leiter isn't going to prison now, the court could "easily" send him there if he violates probation.

"I don't think he has the size or the temperament to last more than 72 hours in Jackson," Pappas said.

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