Judge Sentences Writer With Troubled History : Burglar Must Pay, Despite His Talent

A group of supporters urged leniency for Arvie Carroll, whom they described as a highly intelligent man and a talented writer. But the judge said a record of published work did not outbalance a long criminal record.

San Fernando Superior Court Judge Terry O’Rourke on Wednesday sentenced Carroll, 28, to nine years in prison for burglarizing a Valencia home.

Ironically, Carroll would have been a free man by now had he not escaped more than a year ago from the Peter J. Pitchess Honor Ranch in Castaic.

It was while he was on the loose that he committed the burglary. And the escape proved unnecessary as well as unsuccessful: the conviction that put him in prison eventually was overturned.

Carroll’s lawyers, who had asked that he be set free and put on probation for 11 years, won a partial victory when Judge O’Rourke agreed to reconsider his decision within 120 days, based on an evaluation by prison officials.

But the attorneys said they don’t hold much hope for Carroll’s release, although about 15 people have written pleas on his behalf, including the head librarian of the state prison at Chino and several clergymen. A Sacramento bookstore has guaranteed him a job.

Defense attorney Michael V. White said Carroll’s life “began terribly and then just got worse” as he grew up in South Central Los Angeles.

Arrested at 7

Court documents show his criminal record dates back to an arrest for arson at age 7 and includes such crimes as burglary, strong-arm robbery, purse snatching, assault with a deadly weapon and murder.

Carroll was sentenced to the California Youth Authority in 1970, at age 12, for robbery, Deputy Dist. Atty. Kenneth Lee Barshop said.

While imprisoned at the authority’s school in Paso Robles in 1975, Carroll, then 17, killed a 51-year-old teacher by clubbing her over the head with a flower pot and stomping her to death, according to court documents.

Carroll was given five years to life, serving his time at San Quentin and Chino. While in prison, he began taking extension classes from the University of California at Berkeley.

Extensive Publications

The prisoner wrote extensively and his articles appeared in publications aimed at minorities. In early 1982, a Los Angeles publishing house printed “Behind These Walls,” a collection of his poems, his lawyer said.

Carroll was released in 1982 and enrolled at California State University, Dominguez Hills, “the first real chance in his life to confront society,” White said.

But, about five weeks later, Carroll was arrested in the shooting deaths of his father and a doughnut shop employee.

Two years later a jury convicted him of killing his father but could not reach a verdict on the other murder charge. Carroll went to the Castaic prison farm while his case was being appealed.

Carroll told the judge at his sentencing that the conviction left him in a state of “emotional torment,” and that this feeling led him to escape from the jail on a drizzly day in March, 1985.

Carroll and six other escapees scaled a 20-foot, chain-link fence topped with barbed wire.

Carroll burglarized a nearby house and traveled by taxi to the Greyhound terminal in downtown Los Angeles, where he was arrested before his bus was to leave for Canada, prosecutor Barshop said.

Carroll’s appeal of his conviction for murdering his father eventually was successful. He was granted a new trial and a Los Angeles Superior Court jury, after deliberating for three days, last month found him innocent.

On Wednesday, Judge O’Rourke looked down from the bench at Carroll, who appeared contemplative and held a book of poetry under his arm, and told him he still had a debt to pay:

“I thought a great deal about this case,” the judge said. “You’ve made a great deal of effort to educate yourself. But I’m afraid your efforts are not sufficient in wiping the slate clean.”