In re Houten
| Decision Date | 20 September 2019 |
| Docket Number | B291024 |
| Parties | In re LESLIE VAN HOUTEN on Habeas Corpus. |
| Court | California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
It is ordered that the dissenting opinion filed herein on September 20, 2019, be modified as follows:
On page 31 of the dissent on line 9, the ellipses will be deleted and the following language will be added: ", making prison gang influence all the more powerful." The full quote will now read as follows:
There is no change in the judgment.
NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS
California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.
(Los Angeles County Super. Ct. Nos. BH011585, A253156)
ORIGINAL PROCEEDING; petition for writ of habeas corpus, William C. Ryan, Judge. Petition denied.
Rich Pfeiffer and Nancy L. Tetreault for Petitioner.
Xavier Becerra, Attorney General, Phillip J. Lindsay, Assistant Attorney General, Julie A. Malone and Jill Vander Borght, Deputy Attorneys General, for Respondent.
____________________ Leslie Van Houten petitions for a writ of habeas corpus challenging Governor Edmund G. Brown's reversal of her 2017 grant of parole. Van Houten is serving concurrent sentences of seven years to life for the 1969 murders of Rosemary and Leno La Bianca, which she committed with other members of a cult led by Charles Manson. The Governor interpreted statements Van Houten made during her parole hearing as shifting blame for her crimes to Manson and his control over her, thus demonstrating lack of insight into her responsibility for the La Bianca murders. The Governor also concluded that Van Houten's crimes were sufficiently egregious to support a finding that she was not suitable for parole.
We conclude that the deferential standard governing our review of Van Houten's petition is dispositive: The Governor's determination that Van Houten has not taken full responsibility for her role in the crimes, and continues to pose a risk to the public, is supported by some evidence in the record. Accordingly, we deny the petition. We do not reach the Governor's alternative conclusion that Van Houten's commitment offenses alone provide sufficient basis to deny parole.
As detailed below, we recognize that the record of Van Houten's parole proceedings may be susceptible to competing inferences. We acknowledge, as did the Governor, that the record exhibits numerous factors suggesting that Van Houten is suitable for parole. Under the applicable standard of review, however, we accept all inferences in favor of the Governor's decision and do not reweigh the evidence.
Adhering to the applicable standards of review is not mere procedural formalism. Standards of review define the role of courts in our trifurcated democratic form of government. Thestandard of review governing this petition is among the most deferential and comports with the primacy given to the executive branch in parole decisions.1
Van Houten grew up in Southern California. Her parents divorced when she was 14. She lived with her mother until she graduated high school, then lived with her father and stepmother for a year while she attended Sawyer College and earned a legal secretary certificate. (In re Van Houten (2004) 116 Cal.App.4th 339, 343 (Van Houten).)
Van Houten began using drugs at age 14, including marijuana, methedrine, mescaline, benzedrine, and LSD. At 17 she became pregnant and had an abortion.2 (Van Houten, supra, 116 Cal.App.4th at p. 343.)
In 1968, after receiving her legal secretary certificate, Van Houten traveled up and down the California coast with a boyfriend for several months. She heard about a commune at the Spahn Ranch in Chatsworth, California established by Charles Manson and began living there. (Van Houten, supra, 116 Cal.App.4th at p. 343.)
Although at first Van Houten found the commune "idyllic," there soon emerged a "sinister side" of what was called the Manson "Family." (Van Houten, supra, 116 Cal.App.4th at p. 344.) (Ibid.) Manson believed in "an impending bloody, civilization-ending, worldwide race war between Blacks and Whites," in which "the Blacks would succeed" but (Id. at p. 344, fn. 1.)
During the evening of August 8 or the early morning of August 9, 1969, members of the Manson Family, but not Van Houten, entered the residence of Sharon Tate Polanski and murdered Polanski, Voitcek Frykowski, Abigail Folger, Jay Sebring, and Steven Parent. (Van Houten, supra, 116 Cal.App.4th at p. 344.)
On August 9 or 10, 1969, Manson, Van Houten, and other members of the Family, including Charles Tex Watson and Patricia Krenwinkel, drove around Los Angeles "following Manson's apparently random directions for about four hours selecting and discarding possible victims." They stopped near the home of Leno and Rosemary La Bianca. Manson and Watson went inside and surprised and tied up the La Biancas. Manson then returned to the car and told Van Houten and Krenwinkel "to go into the house and do what Watson told them to." (Van Houten, supra, 116 Cal.App.4th at p. 345.)
Inside the home, Watson told Van Houten and Krenwinkel to take Mrs. La Bianca into the bedroom and kill her. Van Houten placed a pillowcase over Mrs. La Bianca's head and secured it with a lamp cord wrapped around Mrs. La Bianca's neck. Mrs. La Bianca heard Watson stabbing her husband and struggled with Van Houten, who wrestled her onto the bed and pinned her down. Krenwinkel stabbed Mrs. La Bianca with a knife she had taken from the kitchen. (Van Houten, supra, 116 Cal.App.4th at p. 346.)
Van Houten called for Watson, who came into the bedroom and stabbed Mrs. La Bianca eight times with a bayonet. Watson then handed Van Houten a knife "and told her to do something." Van Houten suspected Mrs. La Bianca was dead at this point but " 'didn't know for sure.' " Van Houten stabbed Mrs. La Bianca between 14 and 16 times. (Van Houten, supra, 116 Cal.App.4th at p. 346.)
After the stabbing, Van Houten "wiped away the perpetrators' fingerprints while Krenwinkel wrote in blood on various surfaces in the residence." Thereafter, Van Houten hid for over two months at a "remote location" until she was arrested on November 25, 1969. (Van Houten, supra, 116 Cal.App.4th at p. 346.)
A jury convicted Van Houten in 1971 of two counts of first degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder. The jury imposed a death sentence. The Court of Appeal reversed the judgment because Van Houten's attorney had disappeared during the trial. Van Houten was retried and the jury deadlocked. In a third trial, a jury again convicted Van Houten of two counts of first degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit first degree murder. The trial courtimposed concurrent life sentences with the possibility of parole. (Van Houten, supra, 116 Cal.App.4th at p. 347.)
The Board of Parole Hearings (the Board) first found Van Houten suitable for parole in 2016. The Governor reversed the Board's decision, finding that Van Houten "g[ave] the false impression that she was a victim who was forced into participating in the [Manson] Family without any way out," and that she "characterize[d] herself as less culpable for her actions because she was merely following orders from others during the LaBianca murders." The Governor stated, "It remains unclear" how Van Houten "transformed" into
Van Houten's next parole hearing, the hearing relevant to the instant writ petition, was September 6, 2017. The Board read from the Governor's reversal of Van Houten's prior grant of parole, noting the Governor's concern that it was unclear how Van Houten had transformed into a cult member and participantin murder. The Board asked Van Houten to provide further explanation, which she did at length, with the Board interjecting with further questions.
Van Houten described the impact of her father leaving her and her mother, after which Van Houten began using drugs and "look[ing] for permanency in a relationship with a young man." Van Houten became pregnant and had an abortion that left her "feeling . . . broken and brokenhearted." Van Houten described how she met members of the Manson commune while staying with friends in San Francisco and ended up going with them to Spahn Ranch. She described her indoctrination into the Manson cult, which...
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