Van Buren’s Wife Serves Time of Own : Aftermath: Softball pitcher from Newbury Park put Division I on hold until her husband completed jail sentence.

In today’s early hours, just barely after midnight, the waiting game played by Marcie Van Buren ended and she started the Rest of Her Life.

If things had been normal, the gifted softball pitcher from Moorpark College would be enrolled at an NCAA Division I university readying for the start of the 1995 season. Instead, Van Buren put her college plans on hold and existed in a self-imposed suburban limbo.

Van Buren, whose maiden name was Marcie James, chose to live in her parents’ Newbury Park home with her 2-year-old daughter and wait for her husband, Leodes, to be released from jail.

Leodes Van Buren--himself a star Newbury Park High athlete--was scheduled to be freed this morning after serving four months in Ventura County jail for firing a gunshot through the back door of Marcie’s home last April.

“Back in August (when her husband was sentenced) I felt like this day was never going to come,” Marcie said. “It feels so good. But I’m kind of nervous because all eyes are going to be on Leodes and with me being his wife . . . “

She lets the sentence hang in the air for a moment.

“But I’m excited.”

*

A new life awaits. Dreams of college and a future together can finally be hammered into reality.

After spending more than eight months embroiled with the fallout from the shooting, Marcie, 20, spent Thursday packing.

She and Leodes’ belongings were to go into their car in anticipation of his phone call, in the wee hours of the morning, to pick him up from jail. (Such a release time is common, a jail spokeswoman said, because a brief morning period will count as the final day of the prisoner’s sentence.)

The couple planned to drive to his mother’s home in Corona, rent an apartment somewhere in Southern California (Marcie wouldn’t disclose the location) and try to restart their stalled college athletic careers.

Leodes, 19, earned a football scholarship to Colorado after a record-setting high school career at Newbury Park. But the scholarship vanished when Colorado denied his admission in August, citing a review of his academic records. It was virtually a moot point because he already had been convicted of the shooting.

Leodes will attempt to play football for a four-year college, Marcie said. Leodes could not be reached for comment. Marcie said he would not speak to the media until after he was released from jail. But he has spoken with colleges.

“They’re coming to him,” she said. “And saying things like, ‘It’s unfortunate what happened to you, but we’re looking at your skill in athletics and your mind for academics, not your criminal record.’ ”

Marcie has college plans of her own. Last season at Moorpark, she was named the Western State Conference pitcher of the year and was an all-state second-team pick.

She said she was contacted last spring by Arizona State, Oklahoma and Hampton (Va.) College. But she did not make a commitment because of the ongoing legal proceedings stemming from the shooting.

She has not played serious softball since, she said, but has remained in contact with Arizona, San Diego State and Cal State Northridge. Still, her plans depend at least in part on those of her husband.

“He wants (us) to go to the same school,” she said. “But I feel that whatever happens, happens. It’s a matter of seeing who wants Leodes. We can go to the same school or to different schools if they were close enough.”

For now, she simply wants to spend time with her husband--finally.

The two became close friends during her freshman year at Newbury Park. When he entered the high school two years later, they began dating. They were together constantly, “hanging out, riding bikes, playing basketball, whatever,” she said.

Marcie gave birth to their daughter, Andreya, near the end of her senior year. But in November, 1993, the two broke up, though Leodes saw Andreya and Marcie often.

After several emotional months, the two became involved in a dispute last April 8. After arguing on the telephone, he went to her home, but she would not let him in.

A shot was fired through the back door of Marcie’s house.

Then matters got complicated. Leodes initially admitted he fired the shot, then said he had lied to protect a companion who actually pulled the trigger. Marcie’s subsequent testimony changed, depending on the state of their relationship.

Ironically, the two soon reconciled because of the incident.

“It brought us together,” Marcie said. “He realized he made a mistake by breaking up with me and we talked about it and we realized we do genuinely care for each other, and that we were just going to work it out no matter what happened.”

Despite the tumult, the two planned to marry. And in early July, they decided to elope.

“One day we were sitting there talking about our feelings for each other,” Marcie said. “And he said, ‘Why don’t we just get married? I’ve never been to Las Vegas and it’ll be fun. We’re going to do it anyway. Why not now?’ ”

“And I was thinking to myself, ‘Well, yeah, I was on the outs with my parents,’ and he was on the outs with basically everybody in Newbury Park because of what happened. And so we were like, ‘All right.’ ”

The two were married July 8--two months after the shooting--but they hid the fact from Marcie’s parents, who only learned of the marriage when Marcie testified at his trial.

“They were hurt because they wanted to give me a big wedding, a church wedding, a reception and all this,” Marcie said. “But it didn’t work out that way. And on top of that, you’ve got Leodes--who supposedly did this to our house. They were like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe that,’ and then they find out that’s their new son-in-law.”

Leodes was convicted July 29 and sentenced to six months in jail. He and Marcie have refused to discuss the shooting since then.

And though Marcie said her parents, Curtis and Catherine James, are now supportive of their daughter’s marriage and of Leodes, the months have been difficult.

She visited Leodes twice each week, the maximum allowed, and spoke to him by phone several times a day.

“It’s hard,” she said last month. “Considering that we used to spend every single solitary second together. More than being my husband or the baby’s father, he’s always been there when I’ve needed him and he probably always will be.

“And he has so much love for that little girl. Even when were broken up he’d come over here play with her, bring her clothes and gifts. He disciplines her like any good father would, but he loves her I think more than his own life.”

She realizes public perception of her husband is far from the idyllic picture she paints. But she shrugs.

“People are going to form their opinions of him,” she said. “One way or the other they’re going to think he’s violent. All I can say is, don’t judge a book by his cover.”

*

On Thursday, she packed. Scattered around her bed were blue plastic trash bags crammed with clothes and other belongings. A framed picture of the couple from a school dance stood next to a collection of athletic trophies.

There was much to do. The couple is still arranging to get an apartment--”about an hour or two south of here”--but first Leodes must arrange for his five-year probation agreement to be transferred from Ventura to the county to which they move.

Holiday plans are vague. “We’re just going to enjoy being together,” she said with a smile.

It surely will be a busy time. But before all the hubbub and errands came a reunion, one for which Marcie Van Buren has awaited for nearly four months.

“I’m not going to sleep tonight,” she said Thursday. “Around one or two, he’s going to call me and say, ‘I’m done, come get me’--he acts like it’s no big deal but I know differently.

“I’ll take off, throw our stuff in the car and we’re out.”