In re Elkins

• Decision Date: 31 October 2006
• Docket Number: No. A111925.,A111925.
• Citation: 144 Cal.App.4th 475,50 Cal.Rptr.3d 503
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: In re Jeffrey David ELKINS on Habeas Corpus.

50 Cal.Rptr.3d 503

144 Cal.App.4th 475

In re Jeffrey David ELKINS on Habeas Corpus.

No. A111925.

Court of Appeal, First District, Division 2.

October 31, 2006.

Jeffrey David Elkins, in pro per.

Michael Satris, by appointment of the Court of Appeal, Under the First District Appellate District, Bolinas, for Petitioner.

Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, James M. Humes, Chief Asst. Atty. Gen., Frances T. Grunder, Sr. Asst. Atty. Gen., Anya M. Binsacca, Supervising Dep. Atty. Gen., Stan Helfman, Supervising Dep. Atty. Gen., Scott Mather, Deputy Attorney General, Denise A Yates, Deputy Attorney General, for Respondent.

KLINE, P.J.

Jeffrey David Elkins was convicted by jury in 1980 of first degree murder and robbery, with use of a deadly weapon, and sentenced to a prison term of 25 years to life. On March 4, 2005, the Board of Parole Hearings (Board)¹ found him suitable for, and granted, parole.

The Governor reviewed that decision and, on July 29, 2005, reversed it. Elkins challenges the reversal by petition for writ of habeas corpus, and we issued an order to show cause. The Attorney General has now filed a return, and Elkins a denial to the return. We grant Elkins relief and reinstate his Board grant of parole.

BACKGROUND

This was Elkins's eleventh time (10th subsequent parole consideration hearing) before the Board. His almost yearly appearances had begun in early 1993, as his minimum parole eligibility date neared.

A 2005 life prisoner evaluation report (the report) took this initial summary of the commitment offenses from the 1980 probation officer's report: Elkins and his victim, Larry Ecklund, were 19 years old, high school classmates and drug dealing associates. Elkins owed Ecklund money for drug purchases and was having difficulty paying. On June 16,1979, the two were at a party at the home of Robert Lambrecht, a mutual friend and Elkins's partner in the crime to unfold. Lambrecht's parents were not home, and Elkins and Ecklund stayed overnight. Elkins entered a room where Ecklund was sleeping, intending to rob him of money and drugs. During the robbery, Ecklund woke up and attacked Elkins with a knife. Elkins beat him over the head with a baseball bat, ending his life. Elkins put the body in his car trunk and drove to a remote area near Truckee, California, where he dumped the body. Elkins robbed Ecklund's storage area and a girlfriend's house before leaving the state. His car was found, abandoned, in Montana, and he was arrested eventually in Washington State and waived extradition to California.

The report also related Elkins's own account: He and Ecklund were at the home "drinking alcohol and consuming cocaine." When Ecklund passed out, Elkins took him upstairs and laid him in a bed and then went back downstairs and kept drinking and using drugs. Once others at the party left, Elkins went back up to the room. "His intent was to rob [Ecklund] and then get out of town. Once he entered the room, he hit Ecklund with a bat that was inside the room. His reasoning was it would ensure he did not wake up while he was robbing him, but Ecklund woke up after receiving the blow." Elkins "hit him again," but did not "remember how many times ... because he was very intoxicated." Elkins went to Lambrecht and told him what happened and that everything had "gotten out of hand." Lambrecht, he said, "knew about his intent to rob Ecklund, but neither of them planned to kill him." Elkins moved the body to his car trunk, and he and Lambrecht then cleaned up the room. Elkins left the bat at the house without cleaning it. He drove to an area near Truckee and "dumped the body down the side of a hill because he was too upset to bury the body."

Elkins confirmed his account at the hearing, explaining: "I was severely addicted to drugs and alcohol." He was 19 "[a]nd basically, I lost my job. I had some severe addictions. I had no money. In fact, I was heavily in debt to Larry and I blamed him for all my problems, basically. He was the one that introduced me to the cocaine and the weed and he was the connection. He cut me off. I mean, there's no excuse for what I did. I had no right to do what I did, no matter what he'd done to me. I was very lost and very confused and I didn't think I had any other way out." Asked whether he attacked first, Elkins said, `Yes, I did. In 1995, I straightened out the record of what actually happened. [¶] ... [¶] He did not come at me with a knife. I hit him while he was sleeping in the bed. My intent was to knock him out and to take his money and get away, because I owed him a considerable amount of money. [¶] ... [¶] I owed him a couple thousand dollars.... I was afraid, basically. I mean, I'd already tried to pawn a bunch of my dad's property to him for stuff and so when my dad asked me for the stuff, where's my stuff, I tried to get it back and he wouldn't. I was in a big mess. I just wanted to get out and get away. And I had no money, and so my plan was to knock him out and take his money and go and try to get myself straightened out, but it didn't work that way." He added: "After I hit him, he started moving around and I thought if you knock someone out, that they don't move around. And that's why I hit him more than once." Elkins did not "know" or "remember" how many times. "I wish I hadn't done it," he said: "If there's anything I could do to change it, I'd have done it a long time ago. I had no right, no right at all, to do what I did to him. He didn't do anything to deserve what I did."

Letters from Alameda County Senior Deputy District Attorney Roekne Harmon, a prosecutor in Elkins's case, and from the Chief of Police for the City of Pleasanton, urged denying parole. Harmon had written before to oppose release. These sources noted that Elkins had not always been forthcoming about the facts. The amount and location of Ecklund's blood on the bedroom wall, ceiling, hall, mattress, and in Elkins's car trunk, was evidence all along that Elkins had struck multiple blows with the bat. After the murder, Elkins had put the body in his trunk in the residence's garage, dragged Ecklund down a flight of stairs to the car and then slept in the house. According to the police chief, a resident asked Elkins about noise coming from Elkins's car trunk, but Elkins dismissed the inquiry. "`It was apparently [sic] that Ecklund kicked or knocked from inside the tru[n]k. He drove Ecklund to a gorge off 1-80 near Donner Pass and abandoned him for dead.'" Elkins stood trial and was convicted before revealing where he had dumped the body. Ecklund's family and friends had to wait 10 months for closure on their loss. Officers found Ecklund's body partially eaten by animals and strewn about the gorge. Even then, Elkins "didn't show remorse."

Elkins had dropped out of high school after 11th grade to work, but had by now completed his GED and taken college courses in ministry. The report detailed a superb record of achievement in classes, programs and vocational training while in prison. Commendations and letters of support abounded, and he enjoyed enthusiastic support from prison staff, with no serious disciplinary history for well over 20 years. He had good job skills, job prospects, and a waiting job offer at a hardware store. He had made plans for reintegrating into society, had arranged to live with his mother in Livermore, and had a pledge of support from a local church.

Elkins had an arrest for misdemeanor burglary as a youth, but no contact with juvenile authorities. He reported having begun drinking and using marijuana and cocaine in the 11th grade. He worked as an automotive painter, and had done landscaping and contract labor. At the time of the murder, he was on probation for burglary and had a pending charge of grand theft. Elkins was unmarried before his incarceration but, seven years before this hearing, had married. His wife had filed for divorce. He explained, "She decided that she couldn't keep hanging on year after year and waiting and not knowing if I'd ever get out and she wanted to go on."

Psychiatric evaluations indicated a low risk of violence, that he would do well outside, and that he had achieved good self-awareness and self-image. He told the panel: "What I did, I cannot change. No one has ever been sorrier for a mistake they've made. I had no right to take a human life. What I did was monstrous. I was filled with rage that I didn't know how to deal with. I was not—if I was taught, I didn't learn how to properly deal with emotions and that led to my drug and alcohol addiction. If I could give my own life to bring Larry back, I would do so, because I've learned the value of human life over the years."

Illustrating his drive to help others, Elkins said, was an incident two years earlier when a correctional officer, Goad, fell from a tree at San Quentin. "[¶]e didn't get up. I saw someone hurt. I went to help. I just saw a person that was hurt. I could not have done otherwise, because of the person I've become today." Goad wrote in support of Elkins, stressing how remarkable it was that an inmate would show concern for an officer's safety. "`Without regard for his own personal safety, he stayed by me to ensure that no other inmates harmed me or took my keys or safety equipment. Inmate Elkins is the lead man in PIA maintenance and is respected by both staff and inmates alike. He's courteous and hard-working.'"

The Board's Decision

The Board panel, in a decision rendered orally by its presiding commissioner, concluded: "[T]he prisoner is suitable for parole and would not pose an unreasonable risk of danger to society or public safety if released from prison. This is an extremely, extremely vicious crime. Vicious crime. However, in reviewing all the suitability factors, it appears that [he has] made a concerted effort to enhance his suitability factors and after weighing all of that, we found that the prisoner is suitable for parole. We find that while in prison, the prisoner ha[s...