Judge Frees Man, 18, Convicted of Killing His Guardian

As a Santa Ana courtroom erupted in cheers, a Superior Court judge Friday freed a Dana Point man convicted of killing his guardian.

The defendant, facing a sentence for manslaughter, was allowed to walk out of court after all 12 jurors who convicted him begged the judge to not send him to jail.

“A lot of people have placed an awful lot of trust in you; they obviously believe you are a very special young man,” Judge Robert R. Fitzgerald told the defendant, Joeri DeBeer, 18.

DeBeer, after a long round of hugs from his supporters in the courtroom, said he was surprised to be freed but had hoped for it.

“It’s still unbelievable that all these people have cared about me like this,” DeBeer said.

DeBeer was convicted last month of voluntary manslaughter in the April 9, 1985, shooting death of his legal guardian, Phillip A. Parsons. Parsons, a convicted child molester, had reportedly molested DeBeer numerous times over a four-year period.

Fitzgerald accepted an offer by Syd and Jenny Ward, acquaintances of DeBeer through one of their sons, to let DeBeer live with them at their home in Oakley, Contra Costa County. The judge sentenced DeBeer to three years on probation plus the 14 months DeBeer has already spent in Juvenile Hall.

Fitzgerald also took the unusual step of letting DeBeer walk free immediately. In most cases, even Juvenile Hall inmates are ordered to return to the facility to be officially checked out.

In a prelude to what amounted to one of the most unusual and dramatic courtroom scenes ever witnessed in Orange County, a parade of witnesses spoke on behalf of the young man.

Jenny Ward, the 12 jurors who convicted DeBeer and and even an alternate juror all told the judge that DeBeer deserved special consideration because of the circumstances he was living under at the time he killed Parsons.

“He is a victim of society,” jury foreman Gary Carriger told the court. “We as society allowed this to happen. . . . He has already lived in prison for four years. There were no bars, but also no path for escape.”

One juror, Patricia de Carion, who referred to DeBeer as “my new special friend,” told the judge that society was at fault for allowing people like Parsons back onto the street without adequate treatment.

“He (DeBeer) has protected himself and unknown numbers of our children from this man,” she said. “Joeri is not a menace to society. We need to hope for his forgiveness.”

More than half the jurors said they had visited DeBeer at Juvenile Hall and were impressed with the kind of person he is.

DeBeer, speaking on his own behalf, told Fitzgerald that he wanted to continue his education and get a job. “I have goals. . . . I want to work with kids. I don’t want them to go through what I went through.”

Jenny Ward said later that “my heart started pumping very quickly when the judge said he could go; a lot of people have worked awfully hard the last few months to make this happen.”

DeBeer faced a possible 14 years and eight months in prison, but the usual sentence for defendants his age found guilty of manslaughter is commitment to the California Youth Authority.

DeBeer’s attorney, Gary Proctor, argued that the jurors would not have returned to speak on his behalf if they did not consider him a unique individual.

Fitzgerald asked Proctor what the answer should be to those who say that “here’s another liberal judge letting another killer go free.”

Proctor answered that no one in the courtroom, including a dozen members of the news media, were there because they wanted to see DeBeer go to prison. He added that the judicial system “is not lenient, or forgiving, but one that is just.”

DeBeer is a native of the Netherlands. He met Parsons in Saudi Arabia, where DeBeer’s mother had taken the boy after remarrying. Parsons offered to bring the boy, then 13, to the United States and promised to make a motorcycle racing champion of him and become his guardian. DeBeer’s family was unaware of Parsons’ convictions for child molesting. It was through motocross racing that DeBeer got to know the Ward family.

The only dissenting voice in the courtroom came from Deputy Dist. Atty. Melvin L. Jensen. Jensen did not recommend that DeBeer go to state prison. But he did ask for a 90-day diagnostic study from the California Youth Authority to help the court decide on either a prison term, commitment to the Youth Authority, or probation. Fitzgerald said that wasn’t necessary.

Fitzgerald did ask “if there is anyone in this room, besides Mr. Jensen, who does not think I should give the defendant probation?” It appeared that no one even breathed.

Fitzgerald called it an unusual courtroom sentencing and noted that it was the first time, to his knowledge, that a judge had ever allowed jurors to be photographed by the media in an Orange County courtroom. The case had attracted national attention.

The attorneys for both sides said later they had never seen any case like it.

It all began, Proctor said, when one juror called him asking to see DeBeer at Juvenile Hall, then a second, then a third. Finally all the jurors agreed they wanted to help Proctor get probation for DeBeer.

“Without those jurors coming back, he would have been sentenced to the Youth Authority,” Proctor said.

Prosecutor Jensen didn’t get caught up in the spirit inside the courtroom. He said later: “Use a gun and go to college. That’s the new line at Juvenile Hall.”

Times staff writer David Reyes contributed to this story.