• Leslie Van Houten Granted Parole at 20th Hearing

Apr. 14 – Leslie Van Houten has been found suitable for parole at her 20th hearing, held today at the California Institute for Women in Corona, California.

Van Houten, was sentenced to death in 1971 for her part in the August 10, 1969 murder deaths of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. The following year, Van Houten saw her sentence commuted to life after the California supreme court outlawed the death penalty, stating it was unconstitutional. In 1976, an appeals court ruled Van Houten was denied a fair trial because her attorney, Ronald Hughes, disappeared while the trial was in progress.

Van Houten was retried in 1977, which resulted in a hung jury. She was retried the following year and again convicted, this time sentenced to life with the possibility of parole.
Because of time served on her original sentence, Van Houten was already eligible for parole when she returned to prison in August of 1978.

Since then, she has been denied parole 19 times. Her last hearing was in June of 2013 and she was given a five year denial. In September of 2015, she filed a petition to advance her hearing date citing self-help programs and other work she had done to address the board’s concerns.

The decision will undergo a 120-day review by the Board of Parole Hearings. Then it will be reviewed by Governor Jerry Brown, who will have from August 12th to September 11th to either confirm, reverse or modify the parole grant.

BEAUSOLEIL GRANTED SIX MONTH POSTPONEMENT

Dec. 4 – Bobby Beausoleil’s parole hearing, scheduled for next Tuesday, has been postponed.

Beausoleil was granted a postponement of his hearing for 6 months, according to the California Department of Corrections. He will be scheduled again for a hearing no later than June of next year.

Originally scheduled for February of this year, the hearing has been postponed twice before, due to an unresolved disciplinary action and a Board of Parole Hearing investigation into the matter.

Over the summer, the CDCR relocated Beausoleil, transferring him from Oregon State Penitentiary – where he had been incarcerated since May of 1994 – to the Deuel Vocational Institute, located in Tracey, California.

Beausoleil, 68, serving a life term for his role in the 1969 murder of musician Gary Hinman, has been denied parole 17 times, was given a 5 year denial at his last hearing, held in 2010.

UPDATE: Bobby Beausoleil has been transferred to the California Medical Facility in Vacaville. Thanks to Deb Silva for this information.

Aug. 27 – The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s Board of Parole Hearings (BPH) issued a grant of parole today for convicted killer and former Charles Manson associate Bruce Davis. Davis, 72, appeared at today’s hearing at California Men’s Colony, his 30th before the board.

The suitability finding is subject to a 120-day decision review period. If the grant is finalized at the conclusion of decision review, the Governor may conduct an independent review of the decision. Under California law, the Governor has 30 days to reverse, modify, uphold, or take no action on the Board’s decision.

Davis was sent to state prison on April 21, 1972, with a life sentence from Los Angeles County for two counts of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder and robbery. He was convicted for the July 25, 1969, murder of Gary Hinman and the murder of Donald “Shorty” Shea in August 1969.

Aug. 3 – Prior to the 1977 retrial of Leslie Van Houten, Dr. Joel Fort, the so-called “hippie Doctor of Haight Ashbury,” interviewed Charlie Manson at the California Medical Facility, in an effort to get Manson’s own take on his influence over Van Houten prior to the LaBianca murders.

In June of the same year, Fort testified, that based on Van Houten’s own testimony, “she did harbor malice and did manifest an intent to kill another human being,” when Leslie helped murder Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. Testifying for the state, Fort’s assessment contradicted the testimony of five defense psychiatrists who had earlier testified that Van Houten was not mentally able to premeditate the LaBianca murders because of the influence Charles Manson had on her.

For four days of testimony, jurors listened to Fort’s version of Manson’s replies, however, Van Houten’s lawyer, Maxwell Keith, wanted them to hear Manson himself. On Monday, June 27, 1977, upon Keith’s request, jurors got the opportunity to listen to the Fort-Manson interview, recorded in Vacaville, in March of that same year.

HEARING POSTPONED DUE TO CONTINUING RULES INFRACTION INVESTIGATION

Jul. 13 – Bobby Beausoleil’s parole hearing, scheduled for this Thursday, has been postponed for the second time, according to the California Department of Corrections.

The hearing, which was set to take place in February, was initially postponed because of an unresolved disciplinary action. At that time, the Board of Parole Hearing issued a request for further investigation into the matter and the hearing was moved to July.

According to the CDCR, neither the disciplinary action or the investigation have been resolved and the hearing will be rescheduled after the conclusion of both.

Beausoleil, 67, serving a life term for his role in the 1969 murder of musician Gary Hinman, has been denied parole 17 times, was given a 5 year denial at his last hearing, held in 2010.

Gary Hinman’s cousin, Kay Martley, along with Sharon Tate’s sister, Debra Tate, planned to make opposition statements at the hearing via telephone, according to an Associated Press report by Don Thompson.

While the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office routinely attends Beausoleil’s hearings, Martley’s participation would mark the first time anyone made a victim impact statement at one.