Driver Charged With Hate Crime in Death

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 determine whether to seek the death penalty for 35-year-old Marie Elise West of Hermosa Beach.

She is charged with repeatedly running her car over Jesus Plascencia 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 Hispanic 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. It’s very hard for us,” said Martha Santivanez of Reseda.

Plascencia was godfather to her twin daughters, Emma and Eva. “I’m angry. I hope [West] gets what she deserves.”

But West’s husband said his wife suffered from mental illness, for which she 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 state law that permits capital punishment for a hate crime murder, said Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office.

The law applies to anyone who intentionally kills another because of his or her 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.”

“Even O.J. wasn’t prosecuted for a capital offense,” Capozzola said.

On 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 a busboy for 12 years.

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

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

That morning, he picked up the bagels as usual.

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 dozens of scattered bagels.

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

In an interview with The Times last week, Bowman said his wife suffered from a manic-depressive disorder and was susceptible to nervous breakdowns.

He denied that she was racist, saying that he is 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 at 7 p.m. Friday at Lorenzen Mortuary in Reseda. Funeral Mass is at 9 a.m. Saturday at St. Bridget of Sweden Roman Catholic Church in Van Nuys.

Both the bagel factory and the deli are collecting donations for his 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.