Good Samaritans : Rescue of Crash Victims May Win Inmates an Early Release

A state official said Thursday that he will ask for the early release of three inmates of a state prison camp who risked their lives to rescue people injured in a fiery highway wreck.

The accident happened Friday night near the San Francisquito Conservation Camp in the Santa Clarita Valley. Prisoners said it sounded like thunder. From the weightlifting yard at the camp, they bolted up a hillside to see a sports car ablaze. A van was crushed. The injured were screaming.

One of the prisoners pulled the car’s driver from the flames. The inmates could not save his wife.

Others removed nine of the 10 people in the van, then carried it away from the fire, its driver trapped by the steering column.

“Flames were getting larger and larger, and tires were exploding as they worked on the car,” said Lt. Earl Farar, the camp administrator. “I’ll recommend an early release.”

An early parole would be authorized by a 1982 state law meant to encourage inmates to save lives, prevent property destruction and testify about felonies committed in prison. Farar’s recommendation needs the approval of a review board of the state Department of Corrections.

The three inmates are Edward Quintanilla, 31, serving a nine-year term for burglary; Joey Hopkins, 28, serving a five-year sentence for robbery, and Rick Leonard, 25, serving a four-year term for burglary. Quintanilla is scheduled to be released Aug. 19, 1988; Hopkins on Jan. 18, 1988, and Leonard on March 16, 1987.

The camp houses 92 low-security prisoners who fight brush fires and install flood-control drains for Los Angeles County.

Robert Dixon, 26, tried to pass another car, and his Corvette slammed head-on into the van, said California Highway Patrol Officer Ben Dibene. The van carried two families from Green Valley, north of Saugus.

Dixon remained in critical condition Thursday with third-degree burns at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center. He will be held on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter, authorities said. His wife, Michellene, 21, died in the crash.

The van’s driver, William Palm, 30, and a passenger, Laura DiPaola, 28, were in serious condition at Holy Cross Hospital in Mission Hills. Palm’s wife, Maureen, 28, was listed in serious condition and Linsey Palm, 2, was in good condition at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Valencia.

About 50 inmates rushed to the accident 150 feet from the prison dormitories.

“When I got there, it was madness,” Quintanilla said in an interview Thursday. “We jerked on the driver of the ‘Vette, but we couldn’t get him out.”

After Hopkins, Leonard and Quintanilla struggled awhile in vain to free Dixon, Quintanilla released him from his seat belt and lifted him through the sunroof out of the flames.

Meanwhile, Hopkins and Leonard joined 20 or 30 inmates rescuing people from the van as the fire began lapping at its hood.

“We tried to roll the van away, but the wheels were bent up,” Hopkins recalled. “We grabbed the van and picked it up.”

The prisoners called the possibility of an early release “great” but said it didn’t cross their minds during the rescue.

“If nothing comes of it, we’re ready to serve out our sentences,” Hopkins said. “We’d do it again.”