Crime

Police: Empire man admits to tagging jail to get sent to jail

Police say an Empire man spray-painted gang graffiti on the H Street wall of the Stanislaus County jail Thursday morning, April 14, 2016, and told deputies he did so because he wanted to be arrested.
Police say an Empire man spray-painted gang graffiti on the H Street wall of the Stanislaus County jail Thursday morning, April 14, 2016, and told deputies he did so because he wanted to be arrested. jfarrow@modbee.com

A man looking to go to jail put himself in the right place early Thursday: right in front of it.

About 3:45 a.m., a passerby saw a man painting gang graffiti on the H Street wall of the jail and notified deputies, said Modesto Police Department spokeswoman Heather Graves.

Deputies confronted the man, who admitted to spray-painting the building in hopes of going to jail, Graves said. “So deputies obliged him,” she said.

The suspect, Markus King, 23, of Empire, “was intoxicated,” Graves said. “He was arrested for vandalism and being drunk in public and violation of probation.”

By midmorning Thursday, there was no sign of the graffiti.

This story was originally published April 14, 2016 at 11:09 AM with the headline "Police: Empire man admits to tagging jail to get sent to jail."

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