An 18-year-old man accused of defacing an Imperial Beach residence pleaded not guilty Thursday to a misdemeanor vandalism count.

He is not, however, facing hate crime charges despite San Diego County sheriff’s officials accusing him of drawing “hate-related graffiti” on South Bay homes.

The man was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of tagging the residences with “hate symbols and anti-Semitic graffiti.”

The San Diego County Sheriff’s Office received reports on Sept. 13 of a home on Elm Avenue and another on Seacoast Drive that were defaced with “markings consistent with a black permanent marker.”

Six days later, the Elm Avenue home was marked with “additional hate-related graffiti,” sheriff’s officials said.

The man facing charges, whom sheriff’s officials said matched the suspect description, was arrested around 3 a.m. Tuesday “in a dark alley,” where one incident had occurred, the sheriff’s office stated. At the time of his arrest, officials added, he was found with a hand-held electronic device that could interact with and analyze certain wireless signals, including those used by some garage doors, gates and more.

Prosecutors have only charged the man in connection with the Sept. 19 incident.

Deputy District Attorney Mei Owen said during a Thursday arraignment that surveillance footage helped identify the suspect. The prosecutor said the word “queer” was found scrawled in permanent marker on the victims’ home.

A public defender representing the defendant at the hearing said no graffiti tools were found on his person when he was arrested.

He was initially booked into county jail on a dozen felony and misdemeanor counts and was previously held on $123,000 bail.

With only the lone misdemeanor count in play, a judge agreed to release him on his own recognizance, but ruled he must abide by conditions that include no possession of tagging paraphernalia and a stay-away order from the home in question.

The man previously drew news headlines dubbing him the “world’s youngest hacker” for accessing his father’s Xbox One account at the age of 5. A BBC article from 2014 detailing the incident said the boy discovered how to exploit a security flaw that allowed him to access his father’s account without entering the correct password in the log-in screen.