After seven months, a change of courts, and four extensions, a trial date was set Thursday for the graffiti case of Ohio State student Steve M. Peter.Peter, 23, and Daniel S. Shores, 23, of Binghamton, N.Y., were arrested by Columbus police at 3 a.m. on March 28 as they were allegedly spray painting the side of the apartment building where Peter lived, police said.Under a law passed earlier this year, if Peter is convicted of a first-degree misdemeanor charge of graffitism, he could be sentenced to up to six months in jail, fined up to $1,000, and have to pay for the removal of the graffiti. He would also be required to serve 100 hours of community service.Because of an oversight, both cases were wrongly transferred to the General Division of Municipal Court rather than to Environmental Court, said city prosecutors.Shores pleaded guilty to malicious destruction of property and paid a $500 fine, but because the ruling judge wasn’t familiar with the graffiti statute, Shores wasn’t sentenced to serve the 100 hours of community service that the law requires, said James Sika, Franklin County Prosecutor.Jail time, not community service, is the answer to dealing with the problem of graffiti, said Robert Deis, a spokesman for Buckeye Realty, which owns the damaged property at 60 Chittenden Ave. “They like to call it art, but it’s not – it’s just destruction of property,” he said.More than $2,000 was spent to sandblast the red and blue spray paint off the building, Deis said.Prosecution is difficult, said McIntosh, because the crimes usually occur when no one is around. This time, however, Columbus police were “fortunate enough to come upon Peter as he was committing the crime,” McIntosh said. Peter’s case will be heard before Environmental Court Judge Richard C. Pfeiffer, Jr.