Judge Cancels Jail Sentence for DeBeer : Term for Probation Violation Dropped for Killer of Guardian

Spared from another threat of jail, but still facing deportation, an 18-year-old Netherlands native who killed the guardian who had sexually molested him said he has decided to become a lawyer to help others like himself.

“It’s because of what I went through,” Joeri DeBeer said Thursday after a brief court appearance in Santa Ana, where his attorney persuaded a judge to cancel a 90-day jail sentence for a probation violation.

“Six, seven, eight out of 10 kids are going through what I did,” said DeBeer, who began a legal course in a San Francisco Bay Area college this week. “I’d like to be a defense attorney. I’d like to help them out.”

DeBeer appeared in Orange County Superior Court with his lawyer, Gary L. Proctor, and his new guardian, Jenny Ward of Contra Costa County. Also present was Patricia de Carion, one of the jurors who convicted DeBeer of manslaughter in the 1985 death of his guardian, Phillip A. Parsons, but then pleaded with the judge to grant mercy to the youth.

Parsons, a convicted child molester, brought DeBeer, who was 13 at the time, back with him from Saudi Arabia after promising the boy’s mother to support him in his dream of becoming a professional motorcycle racer.

Set Body Afire

The young man claimed that Parsons abused him sexually for years. He testified that he borrowed a gun, shot Parsons, then drove the body to Riverside County where he poured gasoline on the corpse and set it afire.

In an extraordinary courtroom drama, all 12 jurors and an alternate juror appeared at DeBeer’s sentencing last year and asked for mercy, urging a judge to give the young man special consideration because of DeBeer’s claim that he was reacting to years of sexual abuse by Parsons.

Superior Judge Robert R. Fitzgerald concurred and sentenced DeBeer to three years’ probation. But he also ordered the young man not to contact a former girlfriend who had testified for the prosecution in his trial.

DeBeer has admitted to violating the terms of probation by talking to the girl several times last year. In subsequent hearings on the violation, he was sentenced to 90 days in jail, but that sentence was vacated Thursday by Superior Judge Myron S. Brown.

In a hearing lasting less than a minute on Thursday, Brown said he based his decision on the recommendation of probation officials.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Melvin L. Jensen said Thursday that he had supported the jail sentence because DeBeer’s probation violation was considered serious since the girlfriend was the chief prosecution witness. Jensen added that his office has consistently believed that DeBeers “should have been sent to the (California) Youth Authority” for the manslaughter conviction.

Not Clear of Problems

Despite Thursday’s ruling, the young man is not clear of his legal problems yet.

DeBeer was ordered deported to his native country last November after a federal immigration judge in San Francisco ruled that because of his conviction, he should not be allowed to remain in the United States. In addition, the judge found that DeBeer had violated his student visa by failing to pursue an education.

DeBeer has appealed that decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals, a process which normally takes 18 months. In the meantime, the youth said he has enrolled at Diablo Valley College, where he began classes this week.

At the community college in Pleasant Hill, east of San Francisco, DeBeer said that he has signed up for a course in legal procedures and that he is anxious to pursue a legal career after the years he has spent in state and federal courtrooms.

“I’ve learned a lot about it,” he said.