A hidden camera bolted to a pole near Buffalo Drive and Alta Drive caught the moment investigators had been waiting weeks for: a man in black spray-painting swastikas across a political campaign sign at roughly 8:10 a.m. last Sunday. That footage, combined with a sprawling network of license plate readers, led Las Vegas police to David Lawrence Smith Jr., who was arrested four days later at Primm Valley Casino and now faces a felony vandalism charge tied to the defacement of at least 60 signs across Clark County.
Police records list Smith as 73 years old, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, correcting earlier reporting from FOX5 Vegas that had listed him as 62. The signs he is accused of targeting were installed across vacant lots in the Las Vegas Valley in July by Better Nevada PAC, a political action committee backing Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo's re-election bid against Democratic nominee Aaron Ford, the Review-Journal reports. The signs featured manipulated photos of California Gov. Gavin Newsom alongside Ford under text reading “Gavin Newsom Endorses Aaron Ford,” with fine-print disclaimers, according to the Nevada Independent. Hoodline previously covered the signs' rollout in a story on the phony endorsement campaign that preceded the vandalism spree.
Camera Placed After Sign Was Vandalized Four Times
LVMPD detectives installed two covert surveillance cameras at the Buffalo Drive and Alta Drive intersection on August 20 after a single sign there had already been vandalized and replaced four separate times, the Review-Journal reported. The gambit paid off three days later, when the hidden camera recorded an elderly man in black spray-painting swastikas on both sides of the sign. Vandalism was reported across Las Vegas, Henderson, and North Las Vegas, and the political signs were defaced with red and black swastikas, per the arrest report cited by FOX5 Vegas.
Investigators leaned on the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department's network of more than 200 Flock Safety automated license plate reader cameras stationed across the valley, according to News 3 Las Vegas. Those cameras matched a green 2006 Chrysler Town and Country's presence to multiple locations where signs had been defaced, and investigators later spotted the vehicle crossing back into Nevada from Barstow, California, shortly before Smith's arrest. Separately, auto shop security footage also captured the suspect's vehicle, FOX5 Vegas reported.
Arrest at Primm Valley Casino and Search of the Vehicle
Investigators arrested Smith at Primm Valley Casino on August 24. A search of his vehicle turned up a mix of spray paint cans, with the arrest report cataloguing 11 cans total, including six black and five red, per FOX5 Vegas. Police also recovered a Walmart receipt from Barstow, California, dated August 24 at 3:32 p.m., showing the purchase of red and black spray paint cans.
According to the arrest report, Smith denied spray-painting the signs and claimed he had bought the paint to customize his vehicle's wheels. He also admitted to reading the fine print on the signs, the report states, and launched into what investigators described as hate-filled tirades against Newsom and Democrats. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department's Counter Terrorism Section launched the investigation into the defaced signs, according to the arrest report, and police say they have linked Smith to the defacement of dozens of signs across Clark County. Smith's bail was set at $3,000, and arrest report details cited by the Review-Journal note he is originally from California with a prior criminal history there that includes past grand theft charges.
Felony Charge and Possible Hate Crime Enhancement
Smith was charged with placing graffiti or defacing property over $5,000, a felony under Nevada law. Under Nevada Revised Statutes 206.330, defacing property or placing graffiti causing $5,000 or more in loss is a Category E felony carrying a mandatory minimum of 10 days in county jail if probation is granted, along with full restitution, and Category E felonies in the state can also carry prison terms of one to four years and fines up to $5,000, according to the Nevada Legislature. Separately, Nevada Revised Statutes 193.1675 allows a penalty enhancement of one to 20 additional years in state prison when a felony or gross misdemeanor is committed with a proven bias or hate motivation, such as spray-painting antisemitic swastikas, per the Nevada Attorney General's office. It remains an open question whether prosecutors will pursue that hate crime enhancement alongside the felony vandalism charge, or how California authorities might respond given Smith's prior record there.
Better Nevada PAC, which owned the signs, estimated total property damage and replacement labor costs at $6,373.43, according to the arrest report, broken down as $4,573.43 in printing costs and $1,800 in replacement labor. PAC spokesperson John Burke previously told the Nevada Independent that the organization took immediate steps to repair and replace the defaced billboards, condemning the hate imagery and saying it has “no place in our discourse.” Las Vegas Mayor Shelley Berkley had earlier called the swastika vandalism “disgusting and appalling” hate speech that would not be tolerated in Las Vegas, after residents began reporting the defaced signs along Las Vegas Boulevard earlier in August.
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