SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – California Gov. Jerry Brown denied parole Friday for Leslie Van Houten, the youngest follower of murderous cult leader Charles Manson who is serving a life sentence for killing a wealthy grocer and his wife more than 40 years ago.
Brown overturned a parole board’s recommendation in April that she be freed, saying Van Houten failed to explain how she transformed from an upstanding teen to a killer.
“Both her role in these extraordinarily brutal crimes and her inability to explain her willing participation in such horrific violence cannot be overlooked and lead me to believe she remains an unacceptable risk to society of released,” Brown wrote.
Van Houten, 66, participated in the killings of Leno La Bianca and his wife, Rosemary, a day after other so-called “Manson family” members murdered pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four others in 1969. Van Houten did not participate in the Tate killings.
Family member Bruce Davis, who was not involved in those killings, also was recommended for parole, but it was blocked by the governor.