Leslie Van Houten, follower of cult leader Charles Manson, is one big step closer to freedom

Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten is one step closer to being released from prison after California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he'll no longer fight her parole

Manson Follower Parole (Los Angeles Daily News)

California’s governor announced Friday that he won’t ask the state Supreme Court to block parole for Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten, paving the way for her release after serving 53 years in prison for two infamous murders.

In a brief statement, the governor’s office said an appeal was unlikely to succeed.

Newsom is disappointed, the statement said.

“More than 50 years after the Manson cult committed these brutal killings, the victims’ families still feel the impact,” the statement said.

Van Houten, now in her 70s, is serving a life sentence for helping Manson and other followers in the 1969 killings of Leno LaBianca, a grocer in Los Angeles, and his wife, Rosemary.

Van Houten could be freed in about two weeks after the parole board reviews her record and processes paperwork for her release from the California Institution for Women in Corona, her attorney Nancy Tetreault said.

She was recommended for parole five times since 2016 but Newsom and former Gov. Jerry Brown rejected all those recommendations.

However, a state appeals court ruled in May that Van Houten should be released, noting what it called her “extraordinary rehabilitative efforts, insight, remorse, realistic parole plans, support from family and friends” and favorable behavior reports while in prison.

“She’s thrilled and she’s overwhelmed,” Tetreault said.

“She’s just grateful that people are recognizing that she’s not the same person that she was when she committed the murders,” she said.

After she's released, Van Houten will spend about a year in a halfway house, learning basic life skills such as how to go to the grocery and get a debit card, Tetreault said.

“She’s been in prison for 53 years. ... She just needs to learn how to use an ATM machine, let alone a cell phone, let alone a computer,” her attorney said.