The decision was a key step for Kruzan, now 35, in her years-long campaign in court and on YouTube and other social media to have her case reconsidered. She had sought a new trial to offer a battered-partner defense for the killing that took place in 1994.
“She is doing very well, and we’re all just ecstatic,” said Kruzan’s aunt, Anne E. Rogan, of Riverside, who spoke to her niece after the decision was announced Wednesday, June 12.
The state Parole Board and governor’s office could take as long as five months to review the parole recommendation, but the process is expected to move faster than that.
“It’s just one more hoop to go through,” Rogan said Thursday.
Kruzan would be released to transitional housing, “which I believe is wise,” Rogan said. She said it would be outside Riverside County, but she didn’t know any other specifics.
At age 11, Kruzan was first sexually assaulted by George “G.G” Howard, of Riverside, who began pimping her out at age 13, she has said.
She testified in her 1995 trial that another man who was Howard’s rival had urged her to kill Howard. Prosecutors said she was a willing actor in a scheme to rob and kill Howard
Her sentence originally was life without parole. As advocates for her case drew attention to it in recent years, that sentence was reduced twice, first by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2011, and again under a January agreement with the Riverside County district attorney’s office that ended Kruzan’s appeal for a new trial.
That agreement reduced her sentence to 19 years to life with a possibility of parole — opening a quick route to a parole hearing — and allowed her to plead guilty to second-degree murder with use of a gun.
“When people get a little dismayed about the system, I remind them she once had life without parole, plus four years. So for her to be paroled after nearly 20 years is, in my opinion, a miracle,” Rogan said.
Including Rogan, Kruzan has two aunts, an uncle and a sister living in Southern California. Her mother lives in Oregon, Rogan said.
Court records indicated Kruzan was from Moreno Valley, but Rogan said Kruzan’s family lived in the then-unincorporated area of Rubidoux when the slaying took place.
The parole grant, technically called a tentative suitability finding, was reached after a hearing in front of a two-person panel at the Central California Women’s Facility prison in Chowchilla.
“While this decision is subject to review by the full (Parole) Board and the Governor, the panel recognized Sara’s sincere remorse, her successful efforts to overcome severe childhood abuse and exploitation, and her remarkable accomplishments while incarcerated the past 19 years,” read a statement from her lawyer, Ronald McIntire, of Los Angeles.
In his 2011 commutation of sentence, Schwarzenegger noted that Kruzan had taken college-level courses in prison and taken part in several self-improvement programs.
McIntire said in a phone interview that the panel calculated her release date at Jan. 18, 2013, meaning all her time has been served and she could be released immediately if the parole recommendation passes two remaining reviews.
The Board of Parole Hearings has 120 days to review the parole grant to determine if there are any errors of law or fact, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman Terry Thornton said.
If the decision is finalized, the governor’s office has 30 days to review it. Gov. Jerry Brown can reverse, modify or affirm the board’s decision, Thornton said an email. The governor can also decline to review it, in which case the decision would stand.
McIntire said he expects the process to move along quickly; California is under a federal court order to reduce its prison population.
“The timing was good for us,” he said.
McIntire said the Riverside County district attorney’s office was at the hearing via teleconference. Under the January agreement, the office monitored the facts presented to the parole board but will remain neutral on the recommendation. The district attorney’s office declined to comment Thursday.
James Howard, the brother of the man Kruzan killed, spoke in objection to the agreement at the January hearing. McIntire said Thursday that teleconference arrangements had been made for Howard to speak at the parole hearing, but he did not appear.
Kruzan’s case was linked by her supporters to child trafficking, but Riverside County District Attorney Paul Zellerbach disputed that in January, saying while Kruzan had a difficult childhood, the killing was “a cold-blooded murder” and not linked to child trafficking issues.
Prosecutors said Kruzan lured George Howard to the Dynasty Suites on Iowa Avenue in March 1994, shot him in the neck with a pistol and stole $1,500 and his Jaguar.
Kruzan’s supporters for a new trial included the Human Rights Watch organization and actress Demi Moore. In 2009, a 3-year-old video featuring Kruzan and her case went viral on YouTube.
Moore had linked to the video through her popular Twitter site.
“She was a child. Unprotected,” Moore wrote in September 2009. “I think she deserves a 2nd chance. Do you?”
