Thanks to Prop. 57, pushed by the Democrats two murderers will get about 15 years cut off their sentences. In fact instead of 25 years in prison, they will serve about five. This is the ruling of a court. Feel safe in California? This is the same law that said if you RAPED a women under the influence of drugs or alcohol (even if YOU gave them to her), it is a non-violent crime.
“But in November, nearly five years after the sentencing, Violet Crippen got a call from a victim’s advocate at the District Attorney’s Office who told her two of the defendants could be released much earlier than expected.
A judge is expected to make a decision for one of the defendants next week.
Under their current sentences, Taylor Koplen, 25, and Juan Garcia, 24, won’t be eligible for parole until their early 40s, but a change in the law that came the same year they were sentenced could result in their release this year.
“I had absolutely no idea that any of this was going on; it came as a complete shock,” Violet Crippen said by phone Tuesday. “To think that they could be out on the streets with time served … that’s not fair.”
Between Newsom releasing thousands of prisoners, Soros-Gascon and Soros-Boudin not even putting criminals in jail, Prop. 57, unless you are very brave, California is a State that wants as many victims as possible, while protecting criminals.
Why 2 killers of Modesto teen Tylor Crippen could be released from prison decades early
By Erin Tracy, Modesto Bee, 1/4/21
Violet Crippen endured weeks of testimony describing the murder of her 18-year-old son. She kept vigil outside the courtroom as the jury deliberated; hours turned to days and days stretched to nearly two weeks before a verdict was returned in 2014.
Violet’s son, Tylor Crippen, was brutally attacked by three strangers and stabbed to death during a botched robbery on Jan. 29, 2013 at Creekwood Park, where he’d taken an evening stroll with his girlfriend.
“The only time I had a dream with Ty in it was the night before the verdict,” Violet Crippen said. “In my dream I was in the hallway of the courthouse and he walked in through the crowd of people and looked at me and smiled, then just disappeared.”
The jury found all three defendants guilty of murder the next day.
After the defendants were sentenced in January 2016, Violet Crippen said she felt a sense of closure.
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But in November, nearly five years after the sentencing, Violet Crippen got a call from a victim’s advocate at the District Attorney’s Office who told her two of the defendants could be released much earlier than expected.
A judge is expected to make a decision for one of the defendants next week.
Under their current sentences, Taylor Koplen, 25, and Juan Garcia, 24, won’t be eligible for parole until their early 40s, but a change in the law that came the same year they were sentenced could result in their release this year.
“I had absolutely no idea that any of this was going on; it came as a complete shock,” Violet Crippen said by phone Tuesday. “To think that they could be out on the streets with time served … that’s not fair.”
Proposition 57 changes how minors are treated
In November 2016, California voters approved Proposition 57 which, among other things, shifted to the court the authority to decide if a minor can be prosecuted as an adult. Before that, prosecutors could “direct file” on minors, charging and prosecuting them as adults for certain violent crimes.
Proposition 57 was only partially retroactive, applying to minors whose cases had not been adjudicated or to those who had been convicted but were still pending appeal.
In Stanislaus County, there were only about half-dozen defendants to which the latter applied.
Koplen and Garcia, 17 and 16, respectively, at the time of the crime, were two of them.
The Court of Appeals upheld their convictions but remanded them back to juvenile court so a hearing could be held to determine if their cases should have been transferred to adult criminal court.
If Juvenile Court Judge Ruben Villalobos decides to keep the cases in juvenile court, then their sentences of 25 years to life in prison become moot.
The judge could either dismiss the case at that point or resentence them but, because of age limits in the state’s Division of Juvenile Justice, the most they would get is two more years.
In making his decision, Villalobos will consider the degree of criminal sophistication and gravity of the offense committed by Koplen, his criminal history and any progress in attempts to rehabilitate him prior to the murder, as well as the likelihood he can be rehabilitated prior to his release.
Villalobos heard closing arguments in Koplen’s case on Dec. 23 and is expected to make his ruling Jan. 7. Garcia’s transfer hearing is scheduled for February.
Koplen was less than three months shy of his 18th birthday when he, Garcia and Jacob Segura – who was 18 at the time – attacked Crippen during a botched robbery of Crippen and his girlfriend Brittany Waldo.
Identify of stabber questioned
Chief Deputy District Attorney Marlisa Ferreira said during the hearing that evidence presented at the trial showed that Koplen was the one who stabbed Crippen. Crippen’s blood was found on Koplen’s hand and Waldo testified the attacker who had the knife had long hair. Only Koplen had long hair at the time.
But Koplen’s defense attorney Martin Baker said neither the jury nor the appellate court made findings as to who had the knife. Crippen’s blood was also found on Garcia’s shoe and Waldo’s identification of the stabber included a description that he was wearing a red plaid shirt, he said. Segura, detained almost immediately after the stabbing, was found with a red plaid shirt.
Baker said the presence of blood on Koplen’s hand didn’t identify him as the stabber, only “one of three people engaged in a bloody assault” that included punches to Crippen’s face.
“It remains uncertain as to the identity of the stabber and due to that I don’t think the court is in the position to place (Koplen) as the most culpable out of the three,” Baker said in his closing arguments.
In addition to her assertion that Koplen was the stabber, Ferreira said he was “leading the pack” and came up with the ruse to approach Crippen and Waldo by asking if they had a cigarette.
Waldo testified at trial that after they told them no, the man with the long hair punched Crippen in the back. She said Crippen ran away from them and the other two chased him.
Waldo said the long-haired man brandished a knife and demanded her belongings, then made her pull up her shirt to prove, as she’d told him, that she had nothing for him to steal. He than ran into the park where the other two defendants had chased Crippen.
Waldo, 28, testified last month at Koplen’s transfer hearing, having to again recount the night that has afflicted her every day since.
“I struggle making connections with people … I can’t keep a single goal in mind, I can’t keep motivation … I feel guilty for even being here when he’s not,” she said.
Waldo testified that she is nothing like the outgoing young woman she was before the murder. She said she is scared to be in crowds or to go out at night and that she twice has attempted to take her own life.
She said she has tried on and off to complete a degree in psychology but had doubts she will ever achieve that goal.
“I feel they broke something inside of me. I feel like I’m never going to be like someone my age … I don’t feel like I’m ever going to be OK,” she said.
Koplen’s childhood
Violet Crippen, who attended every hearing via video conference, wept as she heard Waldo testify.
Koplen’s mother, Korryn Koplen, also attended every hearing and testified about her son’s upbringing.
She said from the time he was 2 years old she underwent a series of surgeries that led her to be less attentive than she should have been. She said she was often exhausted and would lose her temper with with her son, on occasion striking him.
Korryn Koplen said when her son started getting in trouble in high school, the Probation Department recommended she put him in counseling. She did but she also said she pleaded with his probation officer to get him into some type of program that would keep him busy; however none were offered to him.
Korryn Koplen declined an interview request by The Bee.
Taylor Koplen’s uncles, both law enforcement officers, tried to help him too. The late Dennis Wallace, a Stanislaus County Sheriff’s deputy who was killed in the line of duty in 2016, wrote a letter to his nephew’s Probation Officer asking for more help. Taylor Koplen also lived with his uncle Dave Wallace, a former Modesto Police Officer, for about a year after Korryn Koplen could no longer afford the boarding school she had sent him to in Missouri.
Ferreira said in her closing arguments that despite all of the efforts by his family to help him, Taylor Koplen continued to offend, having 11 contacts with probation prior to the murder.
“His conduct had been escalating for quite some time, pretty much from the time he entered the ninth grade,” Ferreira said. “Each time it was more aggressive and more severe leading up the the homicide.”
A psychologist who evaluated Koplen for the defense testified that he had the potential to be rehabilitated, citing progress he’d already made, including dropping out of the Norteños gang and making efforts finish high school.
Ferreira questions Koplen’s ability to rehabilitate
Ferreira countered that Koplen never finished any of the high school programs because he continued to commit offenses in prison, including distribution of a controlled substance and participating in a riot.
She said Koplen himself, in evaluations with the psychologists, never said his mother abused him or that there was any trauma in his childhood. Ferreira said there was no indications Koplen was developmentally delayed or had any psychiatric disorders.
Ferriera said he told the psychologist, “he did the things he did because he wanted to; those were his words.”
If Koplen’s case remains in juvenile court, Villalobos can either dismiss the case or commit him to the Division of Juvenile Justice.
The Division only houses juvenile offenders up to the age of 25 or for a maximum confinement of two years after that. The Division would also have to agree to accept Koplen.
If Koplen’s case remains in juvenile court and the Division won’t accept him, his release from prison would be imminent.
Judge Villalobos will announce his decision during the next hearing on Thursday.
