FRONTERA, Jan. 18 — Former “Manson girl” Leslie Van Houten was denied parole Thursday because the murders she committed showed a “complete disregard for human suffering and life,” the panel chairman said.

The decision means that Van Houten, 30, who has spent 9 1/2 years behind bars, will remain at the California Institution for Women here at least another year.

Both sides in the case agree that the former high school homecoming queen almost certainly will be paroled before Charles Manson or his other principal followers, Tex Watson, Patricia Krenwinkle and Susan Atkins.

But Van Houten’s release shouldn’t come for at least another 10 years, Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Stephen Kay told the three-member panel.

While in her early teens Van Houten gave in to a youthful curiosity in sex and drugs, she has testified. After years of both she developed a curiosity in murder and gave in to that, also, Kay said.

Van Houten, who presented a sincere, level-headed and forth-right appearance throughout the 4 1/2-hour hearing, insisted times have changed.

She said she’ll always feel guilt and shame for her participation in the 1969 slayings of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca.

Van Houten has testified she helped hold the woman down while the husband was slain, later stabbed the woman 10 to 14 times, and ultimately destroyed some evidence of her participation.

“I know the bad choices I made are not the ones other people would have made, but … as a woman of 30 I’m not going to behave as I did as a child,” Van Houten said.

“It’s important to me for you to know that, until this year … I’ve never felt that I deserved a parole date,” she continued, “but every year, my life has become a little clearer.

“I understand the need (for officials) to wonder if I’d ever get back to drugs, or get involved with another madman who wanted to discuss philosophies of world destruction.

“But I feel I have faced the thing as truthfully…and honestly as I can.”

Psychiatrists have reported since 1976 that Van Houten is emotionally and mentally fit for parole. And prison staff members have given her good marks in conduct and work performance while behind bars.

She stayed out of trouble for six months while out on bail in 1977-78. And she has completed
several college courses since her conviction on first-degree murder charges.

But Kay argued that society — especially the release panel — must continue to pay close attention to her behavioral history.

Van Houten’s attorneys accurately characterized her as a follower, Kay said. And she has admitted that, for years, she used LSD and other drugs to escape from stressful situations, he noted.

“What’s going to happen if the going gets tough on the outside?” Kay challenged. “Who’s she going to fall in with? Who’s she going to turn to?

“Sure, it appears she may have undergone a change. But it troubles me that, in the past, she has looked good on paper.

“Admittedly, she didn’t do this (get in trouble) while on bail.”

Kay said Van Houten was defended at her trial by one of the best criminal attorneys in Los Angeles, who presumably told her she’d look good if she behaved herself.

Paul Fitzgerald, a Beverly Hills attorney who now represents her, took the position that she meets all the conditions normally demanded of a candidate for parole.

She is a mature, sensible woman who’ll always be stalked by guilt, he said.

“How would you like to be ‘that Manson girl’ and wear that mantle for the rest of your life?” he asked.

After hearing the panel’s decision, Fitzgerald challenged the group’s practice of not assigning the same members to Van Houten’s annual parole hearings, saying it denies her any chance of consistent standard for the evaluations.

By RICHARD BROOKS