50-Cent Caper Could Be Ex-Convict’s Last Strike

For Charles Ernest Bentley, convicted of manslaughter and kidnaping and possessor of a 52-page rap sheet, the future may come down to 50 cents.

Prosecutors alleged Wednesday that Bentley wrested loose change from a homeless man on Los Angeles’ Skid Row late Monday night, making him one of the first convicted felons to be charged under California’s new “three strikes and you’re out” law.

Under the law, which took effect less than nine hours before Bentley allegedly mugged the 60-year-old transient, Bentley faces a minimum sentence of 25 years to life if convicted of assault. The statute prescribes the sentence for anyone who has two prior serious or violent felonies and commits any felony on a third offense.

“He is very, very upset,” said Deputy Public Defender Nancy Gast, who entered a not guilty plea on Bentley’s behalf at his arraignment Wednesday in Downtown Los Angeles. “He didn’t even know what he had been arrested for.”

Bentley, 37, who would have faced a minimum sentence of 20 years under the old law, appeared briefly in the courtroom of Commissioner Kristi Lousteau. He followed moments after Donnell Albert Dorsey, 37, of Los Angeles, who also was charged under the “three strikes” law. Dorsey, arrested at 9:20 p.m. Monday, is believed to be the first felon in Los Angeles County to fall within the new law’s provisions.

Police arrested Dorsey in a stolen pickup truck in Southwest Los Angeles, and prosecutors have charged him with receiving stolen property. Dressed in a green hooded sweat shirt, Dorsey hung his head and hid from television cameras behind a courtroom pillar as Gast entered a not guilty plea and the commissioner ordered him and Bentley held in lieu of $100,000 bail.

With seven prior felony convictions--including one assault with a deadly weapon and two robberies--Dorsey faces a minimum sentence under the new law of 25 years to life if convicted. Prior to the law, he would have faced a minimum sentence of six years, according to the district attorney’s office.

“He just kept asking me over and over again how this could be. He just didn’t understand. He didn’t know anything about the law,” Gast said. “I had to go back and tell this man that he is potentially facing 25 years to life . . . when he gets caught sitting in a stolen car.”

The owner of the stolen pickup truck, Ewald Leverkus, 52, said he welcomes the prospect of Dorsey facing a long prison sentence. Leverkus, who lost his job last year as a bank loan manager, has been using the truck to look for a new job and to haul building materials while he bides his time by renovating his Fairfax-area home.

Leverkus said he does not consider car theft a major offense, but he said Dorsey’s past convictions need to be considered. Moreover, it cost him $123 to get the truck back from a police impound yard, the truck was missing several tools and the ignition needs to be repaired because it had been damaged, Leverkus said.

“The system has been very lenient. Something had to happen,” Leverkus said. “For me, $123 is more than I want to pay out for something like this. I would rather buy groceries.”

Just as the debate about the new law, signed by Gov. Pete Wilson on Monday, has split much of California, the Leverkus household was not of one mind Wednesday. Leverkus’s wife, Cathy, described Dorsey’s possible punishment as “really stiff” and predicted that the law would not solve the state’s crime problems.

“I don’t know what the answer is, but I would hope there would be a more humane way to deal with people,” she said. “I know there were other possible (crime) bills being considered, and Wilson just jumped on this one too soon.”

With the county’s first two cases under the new law involving relatively minor crimes, some critics speculated that the district attorney’s office was attempting to highlight the statute’s apparent shortcomings. Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti opposed the new legislation but has said he will enforce it.

Defense lawyer Harland Braun said Garcetti may be trying to make a point about “how absolutely insane this law is.

“It is almost a joke that someone is going to go away for life for stealing 50 cents or sitting in a stolen car,” Braun said. “You really wonder if we’re living in a sane world anymore.”

But Deputy Dist. Atty. David R. Taum described Bentley and Dorsey as dangerous felons, and defended his office’s decision to charge them under the new law.

“They were crimes committed against the people of California,” Taum said. “I am not going to refuse to file these allegations because maybe the case could have been a little better here or a little better there.”

Loyola law school professor Laurie Levenson said the cases, despite involving rather minor crimes, make “exactly the point the proponents wanted: We don’t allow you to continue to commit crimes. . . . If you win on this type of case, this law will be upheld on other more serious cases.”

The Los Angeles County public defender’s office said Wednesday that it will begin reviewing cases filed under the new statute for possible appeals and challenges to its constitutionality. But Levenson and UCLA law professor Peter Arenella said that chances of success are very unlikely for any defense claim that a 25-year-to-life sentence for such crimes amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.

“There is no significant challenge that can be raised,” Arenella said. “That doesn’t mean this is wise penal policy. I think it is unwise penal policy.”

In Sacramento on Wednesday, the father and grandfather of 12-year-old Polly Klaas held a news conference to attack the new “three strikes” law and urge lawmakers and the governor to pass a more narrow bill aimed at locking up violent felons for life.

Marc Klaas, father of the girl whose abduction and murder helped propel state legislators and Gov. Pete Wilson into passing and signing the new sentencing law, said it will cost too many billions because it will result in lengthy sentences for thousands of repeat felons who commit property crimes.

Klaas is backing a bill by Assemblyman Richard K. Rainey (R-Walnut Creek) that bears his daughter’s name. The Polly Klaas bill, which is stalled in the Senate, would impose sentences of life in prison without parole on people who commit three violent crimes, and on two-time offenders who prey on children.

“The Polly Klaas Foundation is 100% behind the Rainey bill because it is a tougher bill that targets the right people,” said Klaas, the director of the foundation. “We’re taking our case to the people and asking citizens to call the legislators and the governor.”

In an interview on Wednesday, Klaas recalled speaking to Wilson on Friday to make one final plea that Wilson not sign the “three strikes” bill into law and throw his support behind the Rainey bill.

“I said, ‘This is a stronger bill,’ ” Klaas recalled. “The governor said, ‘You don’t know how victims’ groups feel.’ I said, ‘Sir, I am a victim. I know how they feel.’ ”

Klaas, who has been at Wilson’s side often during the year, said the governor made no further response.

“I think he probably knew he said the wrong thing,” Klaas said. “Maybe he forgot who he was talking to.”

In all, there are four other so-called “three strikes” bills stalled in the Senate. They had been moving quickly through the Legislature earlier in the year. Now that the harshest of the measures is law, some lawmakers are waiting to see how it works before tinkering with the sentencing law. Wilson also is opposed to letting the bills move if they would water down the new law.

Defense lawyers around the state said many clients fear the possibility of facing life sentences.

“The word has gotten out on the streets really fast. We’ve had a number of them asking us if this is in effect: ‘Oh, my God, do I fall in that?’ ” Alameda County Public Defender Jay Gaskill said.

Murphy reported from Los Angeles, Morain from Sacramento. Contributing was Times staff writer Greg Krikorian.