Internet Prison Plea

Pleading for help through the Internet, a teenage murderer’s friends and family have built a Web site devoted to shortening his prison sentence to something less than life without parole.

“Who is Brandon Hein?” asks the home page for the Oak Park teen, convicted with four other youths of murdering an LAPD detective’s son during a brawl over a small bag of marijuana.

The answers come in linked hypertext: an orderly collection of photos, letters and articles, spiced with drawings Hein made in prison and a poem by his mother.

The site opens with “A Letter From Brandon,” promising: “There is much I can offer society. My life is just beginning. . . .”

It lays out a history of the murder of James Farris III, the trial and arguments against Hein’s no-parole prison sentence. And it closes with an appeal for Web watchers to pray, write letters and support the campaign to get him released.

Hein isn’t the only criminal with a Web site. For example, sites advocating freedom for mass murderer Charles Manson and for Mumia Abu-Jamal, the Philadelphia activist convicted of killing a policeman, have been posted on the Internet for some time.

In this case, the victim’s father, James Farris II, says Hein’s site on the World Wide Web appears to be little more than a bold attempt at an image makeover.

“This makes him look like a good kid,” said Farris, after reviewing paper copies of the Web pages Wednesday.

“[But] every suspect that I’ve ever arrested and almost all of them that you see in jail, they’re always trying to put themselves on their best behavior, trying to make themselves look great, when most of them aren’t,” he said. “The record shows that when people are put out on parole, they start doing the same things they were doing before, whether it’s larceny, murder, prostitution or selling dope.”

The idea came from the Rev. Richard Detrich, an associate minister at the United Methodist Church in Westlake Village. Detrich said he was glad at first to hear the four youths had been sent to prison for life.

“Most of the community was outraged that something like this would happen,” he said. “I said to my family, ‘Good. That’ll teach them, and give a lesson to the rest of the community that we’re not going to put up with this kind of stuff.’ ”

But when Hein’s family sent a note to the church office, asking that one Sunday’s prayers be offered for the teenager, Detrich took a closer look.

He talked about the case with Hein’s family, and after learning more about it became convinced that a Web site could help improve Hein’s image and perhaps help win him a lighter sentence.

“I think there’s a great injustice here, and the Web page is kind of an attempt to communicate to the community that Brandon Hein may not be everything that he’s portrayed to be by the press or the judge,” said Detrich, who helped build the site and write the case history. “We’ll let the people decide.”

Prosecutors said the four young defendants were part of a loose group of gang wannabes known as the Gumbies.

Back in May 1995, Hein--then 18--and three other youths set out on what authorities called a small crime spree. They stole alcohol from an acquaintance and took a wallet from an unlocked car, terrorizing its owner.

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Then, intent on stealing some marijuana, they stormed the backyard fort of Mike McLoren in Agoura Hills. A bloody brawl ensued, during which 16-year-old James Farris III was stabbed to death and McLoren was badly wounded.

A judge imposed life-without-parole sentences on Hein, then-19-year-old Tony Miliotti, also of Oak Park, and then-19-year-old Jason Holland of Thousand Oaks, who wielded the knife. His brother, Micah Holland, 16 at the time, was sentenced to 25 years to life--the maximum allowable punishment for a defendant his age.

The Web site echoes arguments made by Hein’s attorney, Jill Lansing, who said Wednesday that Hein does not deserve a lifetime prison sentence for his role in Farris’ death.

“He never had a weapon, and he never hurt anybody,” she said. “There was a fistfight in a dark room, and there was a puncture wound with a pocket knife in which all the bleeding was internal. . . . Everybody was trading blows [and] to treat that as some terrible act is just wrong.”

Hein, she said, “feels awful about it.”

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Added Christopher Blake, the San Diego attorney preparing to appeal Hein’s conviction: “Obviously, his family and friends have the right to put whatever out on the Internet that they see fit.”

But Farris’ father considers the whole thing an attempt to revise history, and an unpleasant surprise.

“There’s no doubt in my mind this kid’s putting himself on his best behavior, trying to show himself to be a nice kid,” Farris said. “There’s nothing nice about a kid who, when my son is dying, sitting on a bed, this kid walks up and smashes him in the face over and over and over again. He had cuts on his hands to substantiate that, and my son’s braces were all busted up and twisted.”

Farris added, “We’re talking about mean, vicious kids here, and they’re going to try everything they can to get this kid out of prison. I don’t want him out of prison. I don’t want to have to face him again. I don’t want society to have to face him again.”

The site can be found at https://www.brandonhein.com

Times staff writer Miguel Bustillo contributed to this story.