First, it was just a limb sawed from a tree at a North Figueroa Street intersection on April 13.
Then the next day, three mature trees were cut down on West Temple Street in downtown, about two miles away.
A few days later, another fell on North Broadway. Then it was three more on West 8th Street.
The bizarre crime spree almost went unnoticed as none of the felled trees were initially reported to police — that is until the morning of April 19, when three huge trees were discovered downed across South Grand Avenue.
The images of those disturbing losses cycled through social media and quickly made it onto local news. Two more were found nearby that day, all sliced cleanly through their trunks.
The outrage and shock over the vandalism helped draw a slew of tips, including surveillance video evidence, that police would ultimately use to piece together the confusing case of the city’s tree cutter and track down a suspect before more trees were lost.
On April 21, two days after the South Grand Avenue trees were reported, police arrested 44-year-old Samuel Patrick Groft, finding him in possession of a spray-painted, electric chainsaw. Detectives said they have linked him to a total of 13 tree cuttings in and around downtown over a span of seven days. City officials estimated damage for just six of the trees amounted to more than $170,000.
Groft has since pleaded not guilty to several counts of felony vandalism. His attorney, Julieta Flores, declined to comment on the case after a hearing Thursday. However, Flores successfully argued that two of the counts should be reduced to misdemeanors without evidence that the tree damage exceeded $400.
However, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge George Lomeli found that overall, prosecutors had sufficient evidence to proceed with their case against Groft.
“It appears to this court that the charges in the underlying complaint … have been committed,” Lomeli said at a preliminary hearing Thursday. “There is probable cause and a strong suspicion that the conduct involved this defendant, Mr. Samuel Groft.”
Groft, who was wearing a yellow Los Angeles County Jail T-shirt and had one hand handcuffed to his chair during the hearing, didn’t appear to react to the decision. However, during the hearing, he often sent notes or spoke — sometimes quite animatedly — to his attorney. He is now facing nine felony charges and two misdemeanors, accused of cutting down 12 trees and cutting off one limb on another. He continues to be held in jail in lieu of $350,000 bail.
No motive for the crimes has been shared publicly, but at the hearing Thursday Det. Jose Hidalgo testified that Groft had admitted to knowing about several of the felled trees after his arrest.
While Groft didn’t explicitly confess to the crimes when he was interviewed by police, Hidalgo said that he identified himself when shown surveillance footage of a suspect captured near certain felled trees.
However, upon his arrest from a homeless encampment in Chinatown — where he’d been living — Groft told officers he was surprised the arrest was occurring on Earth Day, Hidalgo testified.
“He said something like, ‘I love trees, I love bark, I’m an arborist,’” Hidalgo said.
Tracking down Goft involved officers from three different LAPD divisions and many helpful tips, officers said.
After the downtown tree cuttings became public, security guards and business owners around the city began reporting similar cuttings that had happened in recent days. Several of them provided surveillance footage of a man on a bicycle, wearing a camouflage hat carrying a backpack, duffel bag and what appeared to be a chainsaw, officers testified.
One tip came in anonymously with surveillance footage that showed a similar man cutting a limb from a tree at the corner of North Figueroa Street and West Avenue 26 in broad daylight. Det. Ryan Watterson used other surveillance footage to confirm the man had come from a nearby Harbor Freight hardware store — where a receipt from the store confirmed both his name and that he had bought a chainsaw that day.
Using that information, detectives were able to locate Groft at a homeless encampment where he had previously talked to a student journalist from Cal State L.A. about living on the streets. Groft was cooperative during his arrest, Hidalgo said. They found in his possession the same brand chainsaw he bought from Harbor Freight, as well as a bike, duffel bag and hat that matched many of the images from surveillance footage where trees had been cut down.
Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Cynthia Valenzuela said several of the trees were cut down during the day, others at night. The first limb was cut from a tree on North Figueroa Street on April 13; three trees were cut down at 717 W. Temple St. on April 14; on April 17, one was cut from 555 North Broadway; three trees were downed at 1550 W. 8th St. on April 18; and five were cut on April 19, four on South Grand Avenue and one on South Hope Street, she said.
The three at 350 S. Grand Ave. were Chinese elms, while the others nearby were ficus trees, Valenzuela said. The three on West 8th Street were a type of dragon tree, and the ones on West Temple Street were junipers, she said. Some are on city property and others on private property, she said.
Dan Halden, a spokesperson for the city’s Bureau of Street Services, had previously said the city was removing the remaining stumps and evaluating the replacement cost. He was not immediately available Thursday to provide updates on possible tree replacement plans on city property.
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