A man pleaded not guilty on Thursday to using metal bars to smash windows on a Los Angeles Police Department patrol car and taking a laptop computer that was inside, prosecutors said.
Leyston Rice, 27, was charged with vandalism and burglary and also faces a charge of grand theft in a smash-and-grab case that was captured on several cameras in front of costumed superheroes, tourists and other onlookers on the famed Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Two LAPD officers had just parked the patrol car Tuesday afternoon on Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue, in front of the shopping and entertainment center, when a man repeatedly struck the vehicle with metal stakes he wielded with both hands.
The backhand and forehand blows shattered the vehicle's five windows, resulting in an initial damage estimate of $2,600, according to prosecutors.
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Rice then allegedly took the officers' laptop computer from inside the car before he was detained by security officers. Costumed street entertainers on the Hollywood Walk of Fame witnessed the vandalism.
"Just another day in Hollyweird, you know what I mean," a man dressed as Ironman told NBC4.
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Rice faces up to three years in jail, if convicted.
