A Los Angeles man who got into legal trouble for cutting down more than 300 trees on his Ojai Valley property in 2001 was shot and killed by his brother last week, police said.

William Kaddis, 63, had an argument July 16 with his younger brother, Edward Kaddis, 61, which ended with Edward fatally shooting William in the head, according to the Los Angles Police Department.

After a more than six-hour standoff, police tossed tear gas into the Wilshire area home and Edward Kaddis surrendered. He was later charged with murder. William Kaddis died at a hospital that night.

William Kaddis made headlines in 2001 when 301 oak trees on his property near Lake Casitas were cut down without the proper permission, the worst-ever violation of a Ventura County tree-protection ordinance established in 1992. Kaddis, an Egyptian-American, initially denied he had the oaks removed, claiming he was the victim of racial discrimination.

But during a long court process, a judge in 2003 described him as "the neighbor from hell" and ordered him to pay $500,000 in restitution. The court ordered the money to go to the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy, which would use it to rehabilitate land in the area. Kaddis also was found guilty of other violations, including having an illegal kennel with more than 60 dogs.

A year later, after a series of appeals, he was sentenced to 255 days in jail for the crime and for not paying his fine.

Kaddis paid about $300,000 of the fine in recent years, said Fred Fox, the conservancy's executive director. Some payments were $5,000, but recent ones were as large as $10,000, plus interest to make up for back payments.

The money was put into a special fund designated for rehabilitation work at the Ojai Meadow Preserve, an old livestock grazing area being restored into a wetland.

Fox said his lawyer told him criminal fines are no longer valid after someone's death, but that it's possible to convert the criminal fines into civil ones. The estate would then have to pay the outstanding fines. Fox said he's in the process of filing that paperwork now.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles police are still trying to piece together what happened in the moments before Kaddis was shot.

Sgt. Ruby Malachi said Kaddis approached the house in the 1000 block of Crenshaw Boulevard with a housekeeper and her 15-year-old son. Although his brother was living there, Kaddis owned the property. Kaddis and his brother got into some kind of an argument, possibly over whether the house would be cleaned, Malachi said.

As Kaddis and the housekeeper were leaving, the brother called him on his cell phone and Kaddis returned to the house. The housekeeper said she then heard a series of gunshots, one that whizzed by her. Police said the brother fired a number of shots through a door, two of which struck Kaddis.

Police arrived and took Kaddis to the hospital, but his brother barricaded himself inside. Several street blocks were shut down and evacuated as a SWAT team tried to get the brother out of the home. Around midnight, he came out after tear gas was fired into the house. The Los Angeles District Attorney's Office later charged him with murder.