Tattoo terrorists

TATTOOS WERE everywhere in Courtroom 608 yesterday.

Men with dollar signs on their hands sat by women with stars on their cheekbones in the Criminal Justice Center. Some had lips on their necks and roses peeking out from their cleavage, and at least one man had a tattoo inside his ear that just looked like engine grease.

Gary Valecce, 53, sat in the gallery with them all, the right sleeve of his jacket pulled up to reveal a dark tattoo with hints of blue and emerald green from his elbow to his wrist.

Valecce kept his left arm covered, but there were tattoos there too, evidence in black ink of what he endured for three days last year inside a Mayfair rowhouse. They were crap in every sense, both crudely done and offensive to just about every marginalized group in the country, all forcibly etched into his skin after he'd been beaten and held against his will.

"I'm scared to go outside now," Valecce, 53, told Common Pleas Court Judge Charles Ehrlich yesterday. "I have nightmares. I can't sleep."

Three individuals who pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, conspiracy and false imprisonment charges were sentenced to prison for their roles in the ordeal yesterday, including Corry "Corey" Campbell, 21, who had befriended Valecce, sold him drugs and offered him a place to stay in the basement of his mother's home on Brighton Avenue, authorities said.

Campbell's attorney, Peter Lesh, said his client had it rough from birth. His dad split and Campbell attempted suicide at least twice as a teen, Lesh said, and later medicated himself with Xanax and weed.

There was a soft spot in Campbell's heart for stray animals, Lesh said, though it was the love for a cat named Pebbles that supposedly set him and a handful of other wannabe gangsters off on a three-day, rotating schedule of abuse. Campbell believed Valecce hurt Pebbles, though the group also thought he stole money and some weed, so they took turns punching, slapping, kicking and spitting on him in Campbell's basement. Valecce suffered three busted ribs, two broken wrists and fractured bones in his face.

They filmed it all, of course, and the videos had the courtroom cringing yesterday.

"Please stop," Valecce can be heard, whimpering with his hands covering his head. "Please, please stop."

Later, when Valecce was strapped to a chair, Campbell tattooed "RIP Pebbles" onto his right arm along with a smiley face that had breasts for eyes and a penis for a nose. Valecce's since had them covered up, for free, by a real tattoo artist at InkWell Tattoo in Upper Darby.

Ehrlich sentenced Campbell to eight to 20 years in state prison and dismissed his supposed love for animals.

"Unfortunately, that love of animals didn't extend to humans," he said.

Defendant Carl Halin, 18, is the one who really used Valecce's skin as a depraved doodle pad, authorities said, though he blamed it all on peer pressure from Campbell. Halin tattooed swastikas, Stars of David, two variations of the N-word and a penis ejaculating on a rainbow with the words "Gay Pride" beside it.

Halin's mother pleaded with Ehrlich to spare her son. Then, Carl Halin told the judge he had a five-year plan to turn his life around that included a career in flipping houses. He apologized to Valecce, who hasn't gotten that arm covered up yet.

"Kiss my a--," Valecce yelled, before storming out.

Ehrlich sentenced Halin to seven to 20 years in state prison and said he was particularly troubled by the tattoos. They weren't crimes of passion. "We're supposed to live in a civilized society," he said.

Campbell's girlfriend, Sandra Ng, 19, could be heard in every video screaming at Valecce to stand up, so she could pummel him and call him a "bitch."

Ng's attorney, Geoffrey Kilroy, told Ehrlich that Ng mixed with the wrong crowd in high school and came under the control of Campbell and abused prescriptions meds. Beating on Valecce, Kilroy said, was Ng's way of venting.

Ehrlich sentenced Ng to 23 months in county prison.

Defendant David Thomas, 28, is awaiting sentencing, and defendant Jennifer Pratt, 40, is awaiting trial. Assistant District Attorney John Risler said there could possibly be more individuals charged.

Valecce, who battled drug addiction after losing his longtime maintenance job at the University of Pennsylvania, escaped the home on April 1, 2014, after everyone fell asleep and he loosened the strap that held him. He declined to comment after the hearing or show the Daily News the cover-up tattoo in detail. Risler said Valecce now has PTSD but is getting help and has reconnected with his family.

Ehrlich commended him for speaking in court.

Risler wasn't sure when Valecce was getting his left arm covered up, but believed it was going to be a large black panther. He wasn't positive what covered up "RIP Pebbles" on Valecce's right arm.

"I think it was a cat," he said.