Manson follower Leslie Van Houten one step closer to being released from prison

LOS ANGELES — A follower of Charles Manson who has been in prison for more than 50 years is a step closer to being released from prison after an appellate court in California made the decision to parole her. California’s governor says he will not challenge the decision.

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Gov. Gavin Newsom reportedly will not challenge an appellate court’s decision to parole Leslie Van Houten after more than 50 years in prison, according to the Los Angeles Times.

“More than 50 years after the Manson cult committed these brutal killings, the victims’ families still feel the impact,” Newsom’s statement said, according to The Associated Press.

“The governor is disappointed by the Court of Appeal’s decision to release Ms. Van Houten, but will not pursue further action as efforts to appeal further are unlikely to succeed,” Newsom’s communications director, Erin Mellon, said in a statement obtained by the Times.

Newsom rejected Van Houten’s appeal three times before. She is serving a life sentence for assisting Manson and other cult leaders kill Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, in August 1969, according to the newspaper.

Van Houten, 73, was 19 when the murders occurred. She placed a pillowcase over Rosemary’s head and stabbed her multiple times. The group then smeared Leno and Rosemary LaBiancas’ blood on the walls of their house, the Times reported.

The murders happened the day after Manson’s followers killed actress Sharon Tate and four others, according to the AP. Van Houten was not part of the Tate murders.

Van Houten was originally sentenced to death, but capital punishment was abolished in California, CNN reported. Her sentence was commuted to life in prison. Van Houten was first eligible for parole in 1977.

Van Houten will be released from prison on parole after a final behavioral hearing, CNN reported. The exact date of the hearing is confidential for her safety, according to her attorney, Nancy Tetreault.

Once Van Houten is released, she will be in a halfway house for a year to learn some skills such as going to the grocery store and getting a debit card, Tetreault said, according to the AP.

“My family and I are heartbroken because we’re once again reminded of all the years that we have not had my father and my stepmother with us,” Cory LaBianca, 75, Leno LaBianca’s daughter, told the AP in a telephone interview Friday. “My children and my grandchildren never got an opportunity to get to know either of them, which has been a huge void for my family.”

Manson died in prison in 2017 at the age of 83, according to the AP. He died of natural causes.