Hate Crime Case to Proceed

After spending two years in a state hospital, Marie Elise West will be tried on charges that she ran down and killed a Latino man in the parking lot of a Van Nuys bagel shop, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

West, the first person to be charged in Los Angeles County with a capital hate crime, faces a possible sentence of life in prison without parole if she is convicted.

“The case has been going on for three years,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Scott Millington. “The victim’s friends have sought justice for a long time, so we’re pleased to be proceeding with this case.”

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge ordered West to trial after ruling that she is now mentally competent. Witnesses told authorities that she made anti-Latino slurs shortly after the killing.

West, who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, was hospitalized at least 20 times in the 12 years before her arrest. Her husband, Al Bowman, called the decision “horrendous” and said he is worried about the impact of a trial on his wife. He said he has seen improvements in her mental health, but thinks she still needs more treatment and should be allowed to stay at Patton State Hospital, a mental health facility in San Bernardino County.

Prosecutors allege that West ran over Jesus Plascencia, 65, repeatedly with her Volvo on Sept. 1, 2000. Plascencia, a busboy, had been at the shop to pick up bagels for the Northridge restaurant where he worked. After she allegedly ran over Plascencia, dragging his body onto the street, West drove back into the parking lot, parked her car, walked into the shop and bought a bagel, witnesses said. She then locked herself in her car until police forced her out, authorities said.

A judge found West incompetent to stand trial in November 2000 and sent her to Patton. While there, she allegedly attacked a staff member and spent time in jail in San Bernardino County on new criminal charges before being returned to Patton.

Bowman said his wife’s crime should have been charged as involuntary manslaughter, not murder. West was having a manic episode at the time, he said. “How do you plot to kill someone you don’t know?” he said.

“What a travesty,” said attorney Carl A. Capozzola, who represented West until last summer. “This woman is verifiably ill. What she needs is treatment.”

Capozzola said the case has nothing to do with hate crime and he believes the prosecutors have been “overzealous” in charging it that way. “That is a misuse of the hate-crime statute,” he said. “This woman had no idea that the man was Latino.”

Plascencia’s friends said they want to see West serve time in jail for the crime. “I think she’s ready to go” to trial, said Martha Santivanez, who lived with Plascencia for more than two decades. He was the godfather to her twin daughters. “We miss him very much,” she said.