• Facebook
  • Google Plus
  • Instagram
  • RSS Feed
  • Twitter

Menu

Skip to content
  • About
  • Staff
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • FAQ
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service
Header image

MyNewsLA.comLogo

Breaking news for greater Los Angeles and Orange County

Menu

Skip to content
  • Crime
  • Government
  • Business
  • Education
  • Sports
  • Hollywood
  • Life
  • OC
  • Charges Filed Against Man Accused Of Striking Officers With Chain, Padlock
  • MMA Fighter Pleads Guilty to Attack in Anaheim
  • Rape Charge Against Santa Ana Man Dropped in Plea Deal
  • New Temperature Records Set Countywide Amid Winter Heat Wave
  • Dodger Stadium Opens as COVID-19 Vaccination Site; 5 More Large Centers Coming

Home » Crime » This Article

‘Manson Girl’ Bad News: She’s Still Not Getting Out

Posted by Contributing Editor on June 29, 2018 in Crime | Leave a response
Share this article:
Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

A Los Angeles judge Friday denied a petition challenging Gov. Jerry Brown’s decision to reverse a state parole board’s recommendation of parole for former Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten, who was convicted of the 1969 murders of grocers Leno and Rosemary La Bianca at their Los Feliz home.

“While petitioner may someday be suitable for parole, when her commitment offense is no longer predictive of current dangerousness, it is not yet that day,” Superior Court Judge William C. Ryan wrote in a 16-page ruling, in which he called the crimes “among the most abominable committed in California in the second half of the 20th century.”

The judge wrote that he had concluded that there was “`some evidence” to support the governor’s determination that petitioner poses an unreasonable risk of danger to society, and that all of petitioner’s due process rights were met” and found that the petition challenging the governor’s reversal of parole “must be denied.”

Van Houten’s appellate attorney, Rich Pfeiffer, has vowed to continue to fight for Van Houten’s release. He said he plans to ask a panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal to intervene.

Van Houten, now 68, was convicted of murder and conspiracy for participating with fellow Manson family members Charles “Tex” Watson and Patricia Krenwinkel in the Aug. 9, 1969, killings of Leno La Bianca, 44, and his 38-year-old wife, who were each stabbed multiple times.

The former Monrovia High School cheerleader and homecoming princess did not participate in the Manson family’s killings of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four others in a Benedict Canyon mansion the night before.

A state parole board panel had initially recommended parole for Van Houten in April 2016 after she had been denied parole 19 times between 1979 and 2013. But the governor subsequently reversed that decision, finding in July 2016 that “the evidence shows that she currently poses an unreasonable danger to society if released from prison.”

At a hearing in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom last summer, a woman who once lived at a ranch with Manson testified that Van Houten was “extremely docile” before the killings and that she believed Van Houten would have done anything the cult leader asked. Catherine Share’s testimony came during an Aug. 31 hearing to present mitigating evidence now allowed under state law because Van Houten was 19 at the time of the killings.

Last September, a parole board panel again recommended that Van Houten be granted parole. But the governor reversed the recommendation, finding in January that she “has not wholly accepted responsibility for her role in the violent and brutal deaths” of the La Biancas.

Like this story? Don’t miss any breaking news from MyNewsLA.com. Sign up here for your free newsletter.

 

Manson — who died last November — and many of his other former followers have repeatedly been denied parole.

‘Manson Girl’ Bad News: She’s Still Not Getting Out was last modified: August 7th, 2020 by Contributing Editor

>> Want to read more stories like this? Get our Free Daily Newsletters Here!

Follow us:
Facebooktwitterrss
Posted in Crime | Tagged Attorneys, denies, filed, follower, former, Judge, Manson, petition

Advertisement

Get The Latest News by Email!

Sign up here for our free newsletters. We’ll send you the latest headlines every morning and every weekday afternoon.

 
FORECAST FOR LOS ANGELES
70°
Clear
Feels like: 70°F
Wind: 0mph S
Humidity: 26%
Pressure: 30.04"Hg
UV index: 0
SatSunMon
86/57°F
84/54°F
77/54°F
Weather forecast Los Angeles, California ▸

Most Popular Today

  • Rape Victim Unconscious, But She’s Dead! Suspect Nabbed, Unclear When Victim Died In Pomona 3,400 views
  • Evacuations Ordered as 600-Acre Fire Threatens Mountain Center in Riverside County 3,200 views
  • Lancaster Man Killed in Crash Involving Big Rig 2,600 views
  • Man Arrested On Suspicion Of Rape In Pomona 2,200 views
  • Mom Murdered Four Daughters In Santa Clarita Fire Horror: High Court Hears Death Penalty Appeal 1,800 views

©2021 CalNews Inc.

Menu

  • About
  • Staff
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • FAQ
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service