First, it was just limbs seen on April 13th from a tree at the intersection of North Figueroa Street.
Then the next day, three mature trees were cut down on West Temple Street, downtown, about two miles away.
A few days later, the other fell to North Broadway. Then there were three more at West 8th Avenue.
None of the fallen trees were first reported to the police, so the strange crime was barely noticed. That is, until the morning of April 19th, three giant trees were discovered across South Grand Avenue.
These disturbing loss images cycled through social media and quickly reached local news. Two more were discovered nearby that day, all sliced the trunk neatly.
The rage and shock over vandalism helped to elicit many hints, including evidence from surveillance video. This is what police will eventually use to stitch together confused cases of city tree cutters and track suspects before more trees are lost.
On April 21, two days after the South Grand Avenue tree was reported, police arrested 44-year-old Samuel Patrick Groft and found themselves in possession of a spray-painted electric chainsaw. Detectives said they linked him to a total of 13 cuttings in and around the town over seven days. City officials estimated that damage to only six trees reached more than $170,000.
Groft has since admitted that he has not committed any crimes in the number of felony vandalism. His attorney, Julieta Flores, declined to comment on the case after a hearing Thursday. However, Flores argued that the two counts should be reduced to misdemeanors without evidence that the damage to the tree exceeded $400.
However, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge George Romeri has found, overall, that prosecutors have sufficient evidence to advance the case against Groft.
“It appears that this court has filed a fundamental complaint,” Romeri said at a preliminary hearing Thursday. “There is a strong suspicion that this act could have been involved in the defendant, Samuel Groft.”
Gloft, who was wearing a Yellow Los Angeles County Jail T-shirt and handcuffed one hand during the hearing, appears to have not responded to the decision. However, during hearings he often sent notes to his lawyers and sometimes spoke very animated. He is currently facing nine felony charges and two misdemeanors, accused of cutting down 12 trees and amputating one limb and another. He continues to be held in prison in lieu of $350,000 bail.
The motives for the crime are not publicly shared, but are shared on The Hearing 24 Det. Jose Hidalgo testified that Groft admitted to knowing about some of the trees that were cut down after his arrest.
Groft did not expressly confess his crime when interviewed by police, but Hidalgo said he identified himself when he was shown surveillance footage of a suspect captured near a certain fallen tree.
However, when he was arrested from the homeless camp in Chinatown where he lived, Groft told officers he was surprised that the arrest had occurred on Earth Day, Hidalgo testified.
“He said, ‘I love trees, I love bark, I’m an arborist,'” Hidalgo said.
Tracking GOFT involved three different LAPD departments and many useful tips executives, the executive said.
After the downtown tree cuttings were revealed, city security guards and business owners began reporting similar cuttings that have happened recently. Some of them provided surveillance footage of the man riding a bike, wearing a backpack, duffel bag and a camouflage hat that looked like a chainsaw, officers testified.
One hint appeared anonymously in surveillance footage. This shows a man who appears to have cut his limbs from the trees at the corner of North Figuero A Street and West Avenue 26 during the day, cutting his limbs from the corner of daytime. det. Ryan Watterson used other surveillance footage to confirm that the man was from a cargo hardware store in a nearby port. So we checked both his name by the store receipt and confirmed that he had bought a chainsaw that day.
Using that information, detectives were able to find Groft in a homeless camp, where he had previously spoken to a student journalist at Cal State LA about life on the streets. Groft was cooperative during his arrest, Hidalgo said. They discovered he owned the same branded chainsaw he purchased from Harbor’s cargo, as well as a bike, duffel bag and hat that fits many images of surveillance footage where the trees were cut down.
Los Angeles County Deputy Director Atty; Cynthia Valenzuela said some trees were cut down during the day and others were cut down at night. The first limbs were cut off from a tree at North Figuero Ast Street on April 13th. Three trees were cut down on April 14th at 717 W. Temple St. On April 17th, one was disconnected from 555 North Broadway. Three trees fell on April 18th at 1550 W. 8th St. And five were cut on April 19th, four were cut on South Grand Avenue and one on South Hope Street, she said.
The three of 350 S. Grand Avenue were in Neem, China, and others nearby were Ficus trees, Valenzuela said. Three of West 8th Avenue were a type of Dragon Tree, and the one from West Temple Street was Juniper, she said. Some are in city property, while others are in private property, she said.
Dan Halden, a spokesman for the city’s Department of Street Services, previously said the city is removing the remaining stumps and assessing the cost of replacement. He was not available immediately on Thursday.
