Suspect in 3 Deaths Left Jail Early

Joshua Vick walked out of a Los Angeles County jail Dec. 13 after serving just three days of a 60-day sentence for a probation violation. He soon went looking for Tesha Collins, the ex-girlfriend he allegedly had been threatening for months.

Today, Collins is dead, Vick is the primary suspect in her kidnapping and slaying, and new criticism is being directed at the program that allowed him to spend so little time behind bars.

Known as “early release,” the program was established in 2002 by Sheriff Lee Baca as a way to deal with budget cuts that he said caused him to cut the number of county jail beds from 22,000 to 17,500. Vick is one of about 120,000 criminals who have been released early, many of them after serving 10% or less of their sentences.

Los Angeles Police Department officials said that Vick, 23, is also suspected of killing his parents, Gable and Mary Vick, Friday morning in their apartment on West Imperial Highway. Not long afterward, Collins was abducted at gunpoint from the Los Angeles preschool classroom where she worked.

Police also believe Vick committed five robberies before he was wounded in a gun battle with LAPD officers Saturday morning. Collins was found dead near Vick’s car and authorities say they believe he shot her.

Vick was arrested on suspicion of multiple murder and assault on a police officer. He remains hospitalized with gunshot wounds, police said Sunday.

Even without the early-release program, Vick could have been out of jail by last weekend, if he had served his jail time peacefully, authorities said. But on Sunday, Collins’ family criticized the decision to release him so soon.

Collins’ mother, Stephanie Don, said that shortly after Vick’s release, he visited Collins’ apartment and asked if she was home. The mother, who said Collins had told her of Vick’s threats, lied and told him no. “A person like that ... needs time to serve their sentence in jail,” Don, 55, said in a phone interview Sunday. “I mean a long time -- not to be let out to roam the streets again.”

Vick was sentenced to probation in April, after being convicted of a misdemeanor charge of assault with a deadly weapon. Sheriff’s and LAPD officials did not provide details Sunday.

The early-release program has been under fire for months from prosecutors, judges, police chiefs and others. The apparent fallout from Vick’s release was probably “the tip of the iceberg,” said Tony Bell, spokesman for county Supervisor Mike Antonovich. “Early release is a failed program, a dangerous program and an irresponsible program,” Bell added.

The Board of Supervisors voted last month to give the Sheriff’s Department $24.4 million to help solve the crowding crisis in the jails. At the time, Baca said it was not enough money to end early release.

Baca spokesman Steve Whitmore said Sunday that the money will help. Specifically, it will allow the department to ensure that criminals such as Vick -- those convicted of misdemeanor assaults -- serve their full jail time, he said.

In a phone interview Sunday, Baca said the early-release program was “an undesirable forced reality on me -- and I object to it, I resent it.”

Still, Baca said ending such early releases would go only so far. There is no way to foresee which individuals released after serving their time might commit future crimes, he said.

Baca said what happened between the time of Vick’s release from jail and the recent slayings needs to be examined.

“This is a story where all of us need to take some responsibility in asking what could have been done better,” he said.

Baca said that an inquiry could go back even further, starting with the judge who put Vick on probation rather than sentencing him to jail. And he reiterated his belief that state and county officials needed to recognize that his jails require additional funds to operate properly.

County voters also share some responsibility, he said, noting that they rejected a half-cent sales-tax measure he backed in November that would have helped fund the jails. The measure gained about 60% of the vote, but needed two-thirds to pass.

“Criminal justice is the one public service where money should not be denied,” he said.

The LAPD has made efforts in recent months to identify high-risk inmates slated for early release from county jails. In the pilot program, six LAPD detectives monitor inmates at county jails and alert the city’s 18 police divisions when the most potentially dangerous offenders are released early.

LAPD Assistant Chief George Gascon said Vick was not identified by the program.

“It’s very much in the developmental stage,” he said.

Collins’ family, meanwhile, was mourning the loss of a young, single mother. Collins, 29, is survived by four children -- daughters Unitee, 10, and Lania, 3; and sons Omari, 7, and Jaheem, 1.

Vick is the youngest child’s father, Don said. For now, the children will be staying with their grandmother.

Don said her daughter was a lifelong resident of Los Angeles, a high school graduate who was working as a teachers’ aide at Hooper Early Education Center and hoping to attend college.

She said the first time Collins introduced her then-boyfriend, Vick laid it on thick, saying he planned to marry Collins. When the relationship turned sour, she said Vick turned ugly.

“He had been threatening her and threatening a couple of her friends, and saying he was going to kill each one of them.... And she had kept going down to the police station telling them about how he kept harassing her like that,” she said.

Don said her daughter had not filed for a restraining order against Vick. But his own family had filed numerous restraining orders against him, LAPD Deputy Chief Earl Paysinger said.

Authorities said Vick had a long history of run-ins with the law, but they did not provide details.