Woman Faces Hate-Crimes Death Charge

In the first prosecution of its kind in Los Angeles County, a woman has been charged with murder and hate crimes after allegedly using her car to run down and kill a Latino man in Van Nuys last week.

Prosecutors said they will wait until after a preliminary hearing to decide whether to seek the death penalty for 35-year-old Marie Elise West of Hermosa Beach.

West is charged with repeatedly running her car over Jesus Plascencia, 65, in the parking lot next to a Van Nuys bagel factory Sept. 1. Authorities said witnesses heard her make comments about her hatred of people of Latino origin, and a bakery employee at the scene said a witness told him West referred to Plascencia as “a dead road kill.”

Members of Plascencia’s family said they were devastated.

“My kids have been crying,” said Martha Santivanez of Reseda. Plascencia was the godfather of her 20-year-old twin daughters, Emma and Eva. “It’s very hard for us. I’m angry. I hope [West] gets what she deserves.”

But West’s husband said his wife suffers from mental illness, for which she has had to take medication such as lithium.

“She has had 18 hospitalizations in 10 years,” Al Bowman said Wednesday, breaking into tears when he heard about the murder charge against his wife.

West is the first person in Los Angeles County to be charged under the late-’80s state law that permits capital punishment for a hate-crime slaying, said Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the district attorney.

The law applies to anyone who intentionally kills another because of that person’s race, color, religion, nationality, or country of origin.

West’s attorney, Carl A. Capozzola, said: “There’s already been one tragedy. But we’d like to prevent a second tragedy, and that is a woman who’s mentally ill being prosecuted for a crime she’s not even aware of.”

On Friday, Sept. 1, Plascencia went to the bakery as he had done every morning for years to pick up bagels for Weiler’s Deli and Restaurant in Northridge, where he had been working as a busboy for 12 years.

“Jesus was the kindest, nicest, gentlest man,” said Julie Shipley, manager for Weiler’s.

Plascencia was a frail man who looked older than he was because of his hard life, but he always smiled and was well loved, those who knew him said.

That morning, as usual, he picked up bags of bagels. As he walked to his car, he encountered West. The woman ran over him at least twice and dragged his body into the middle of the street, where it lay until after dawn, amid the scattered dozens of bagels he bought.

Then, according to Western Bagel employees, West drove back into the parking lot, parked her car, walked into the shop and bought a bagel. Then she got into her car and locked herself in. A Western Bagel employee said police had to forcibly remove her.

In an interview with The Times last week, Bowman said his wife suffers from a manic-depressive disorder and is susceptible to nervous breakdowns. He denied that she is a racist, noting that he is himself half Mexican.

Those who knew Plascencia remained outraged by his death.

“The media portrayed [West] as your girl next door, the most innocent person,” said a bakery employee who asked not to be identified. “She was brutal. She committed a horrible crime.”

A vigil service for Plascencia is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday at Lorenzen Mortuary, 19300 Sherman Way, Reseda. A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 9 a.m. Saturday at St. Bridget of Sweden Roman Catholic Church, 7120 Whitaker Ave., Van Nuys. Both the bagel factory and the deli are collecting donations for Plascencia’s family.

In a statement released through their lawyer, the West and Bowman families said they felt “very sorry for the tragedy suffered by Jesus Plascencia and his family.”

West is being held without bail at Twin Towers Jail in Los Angeles.