Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón’s reform-minded outlook on juvenile justice appeared made for somebody like Denmonne Lee.
When he was 16, Lee took half in an Antelope Valley fuel station theft that ended within the dying of former Marine John Ruh. Lee, who was acquainted with the sufferer, had deliberate the 2018 theft and offered a weapon to his co-defendant, in line with courtroom data. Though Lee wasn’t the shooter, he was charged with homicide.
However when Gascón took workplace two years later, as Lee’s case was making its approach by way of the courtroom system, he barred prosecutors from making an attempt juveniles as adults. Lee was convicted and ordered held on the county’s Safe Youth Remedy Facility in Sylmar till he turned 25.
Lee “responded very effectively” to applications in custody, authorities stated. Inside a yr, probation officers moved him from the high-security Sylmar facility right into a rehabilitation-focused setting in Malibu. After being launched to a midway home final June, Lee enrolled in neighborhood faculty and located work at an area nonprofit.
After which, in April, he was arrested and charged with taking part in a serious position in one other murder.
The case has given Gascón’s critics a possibility to immediately hyperlink the progressive district lawyer’s insurance policies to a violent crime that some argue may have been prevented had Lee confronted a stiffer penalty in grownup courtroom. Nathan Hochman, Gascón’s opponent as he seeks reelection in November, has spent important time shouting out high-profile crimes that he contends are signs of the incumbent’s insurance policies.
Some juvenile regulation specialists keep that Lee’s case is an outlier that doesn’t essentially disprove analysis supporting Gascón’s approach of doing issues. However his alleged position within the killing of 28-year-old Eric Ruffins earlier this yr has generated outrage amongst victims — and offered contemporary ammunition to the district lawyer’s political opponents.
Kathy Cady, a victims-rights lawyer representing Ruh’s widow, stated that “if Gascón hadn’t stopped [Lee] being tried in grownup courtroom, he’d be in jail for all times. As a substitute, he was freed to commit one other horrific homicide.” Cady was amongst those that spearheaded efforts to recall Gascón from workplace in recent times.
Some criminologists — in addition to a Occasions’ evaluation of courtroom knowledge — have solid doubt on makes an attempt to solely blame Gascón’s insurance policies for crime price fluctuations, and his dealing with of the preliminary homicide case towards Lee isn’t too far out of step with the best way California’s prison justice system is treating teenagers.
After a sequence of modifications in state regulation meant to maintain teenagers out of grownup prisons, solely 12 juvenile instances had been efficiently transferred into grownup courtroom in 2022, the final yr for which such knowledge is public. In 2016, the final yr prosecutors may immediately file grownup costs towards teenagers, 340 youths had been tried as adults statewide, data present.
“Folks usually depart jail extra harmful than after they went in,” stated Sean Garcia-Leys, co-executive director of the Peace and Justice Legislation Middle in Fullerton. “We have now to have a look at what knowledge reveals in regards to the effectiveness of various kinds of sentences at lowering recidivism.”
John Ruh, a 61-year-old former Marine, was killed throughout a 2018 theft at an Antelope Valley fuel station during which prosecutors deemed Denmonne Lee, then 16, a “main participant.”
(Kathleen Cady)
Gascón’s opposition to making an attempt juveniles as adults has been amongst his most controversial insurance policies. His 2022 resolution to not cost 26-year-old Hannah Tubbs as an grownup for the sexual assault of a kid, which occurred when Tubbs was 17, drew widespread criticism. The fallout led Gascón to backpedal and create a technique for prosecutors to hunt to have instances transferred to grownup courtroom after stringent evaluate.
Lee’s first case, nevertheless, was resolved when Gascón’s ban was nonetheless in use.
Lee walked as much as the VP Fuels and Drive-Through Dairy in Lancaster on Feb. 19, 2018, and requested the cashier, Ruh, for a cigarette, in line with testimony given throughout an appellate courtroom listening to. The request was a distraction in order that his confederate, Deonta “Fatboy” Johnson, may get near Ruh with a gun and demand that he open the money register, courtroom data present.
After a quick alternate, Johnson shot Ruh, 61, thrice. Detectives stated Lee walked away from the scene “smiling,” and later detailed the crime to his girlfriend, claiming his gun “had a physique on it,” in line with courtroom testimony.
Lee was arrested that March and charged with homicide. A listening to to switch him to grownup courtroom started in April 2020, however Lee modified attorneys and hearings had been delayed till after Gascón took workplace, data present.
Cady fought the plan to have Lee tried as a juvenile. The lawyer stated in courtroom papers that Lee had obtained a cellphone whereas in juvenile custody and “despatched a threatening video rap to his ex-girlfriend, promising to shoot her.”
“The identical b— I name my child momma snitched on a man,” Lee rapped, in line with courtroom data. “After I catch that b—, I’m gonna shoot that b— proper between her eyes.”
Cady stated her bid to cease the case from being moved to juvenile courtroom failed, and prosecutors didn’t proceed with witness-tampering costs associated to the video.
A spokeswoman for the district lawyer’s workplace declined to touch upon the tampering allegation or the video. In an announcement, the workplace stated Lee’s case ought to have remained in juvenile courtroom no matter Gascón’s coverage as a result of he was not the shooter and had no prior document of violence.
“His earlier delinquent historical past, and the opposite elements controlling switch choices strongly supported his amenability for rehabilitation within the juvenile justice system,” the assertion learn. “There was not an affordable chance {that a} juvenile courtroom would have transferred him to grownup courtroom.”
Since forming a committee permitting prosecutors to hunt that some juveniles be tried as adults, the district lawyer’s workplace stated it has signed off on the submitting of 20 switch motions, with only one case finally receiving judicial approval.
In 2022, the California Legislature additionally raised the usual for a teen to be tried as an grownup, requiring prosecutors to show “by clear and convincing proof” that the juvenile can’t be rehabilitated in a youth facility.
Jerod Gunsberg, a veteran prison protection lawyer who usually represents juveniles in Los Angeles, stated that even earlier than the change within the regulation, a decide would have been unlikely to strive Lee as an grownup.
“If you happen to take a look at anyone, a youngster, who has no historical past of violence previous to this incident, who wasn’t a shooter, who might have deliberate a theft that went tragically dangerous, that strikes me as a case that ought to not have been transferred to grownup courtroom even in 2018,” Gunsberg stated.
For the higher a part of two years, it seemed as if the choice to maintain Lee out of grownup courtroom was turning out as meant.
The probation division declined to reply an in depth listing of questions from The Occasions, and probation reviews for Lee aren’t public document. However in line with the district lawyer’s workplace, Lee carried out so effectively when he was transferred out of the high-security Sylmar compound in March 2023 that probation officers advisable that he be moved to a different much less restrictive “step down facility.”
Prosecutors and Ruh’s widow supported the transfer. After spending 5 years in custody, Lee could be launched to a de facto midway residence, the place he would nonetheless should obey a curfew and stay underneath probation supervision, however would have extra freedom than he’d had since his 2018 arrest.
Lee enrolled in courses at Mission Hills Group School and started working half time at a Torrance nonprofit referred to as Mass Liberation, in line with the district lawyer’s workplace. Calls and e-mails to the college and the nonprofit searching for remark weren’t returned.
Within the case of Ruffins, the second killing during which Lee is accused, the sufferer was shot useless within the 15600 block of Atlantic Avenue, in an unincorporated space close to Compton, round 5 p.m. on Jan. nineteenth, in line with the L.A. County Sheriff’s Division.
In April, an arrest warrant surfaced naming Lee as an confederate, data present. Weeks later, Lee and Dewayne Cathey had been charged with Ruffins’ homicide.
The Sheriff’s Division wouldn’t remark additional on the taking pictures. E-mails and calls to Lee’s lawyer weren’t returned. A spokeswoman for the district lawyer’s workplace confirmed that Lee had been charged as an “aider and abettor” and was not suspected of taking pictures Ruffins, however declined to supply additional particulars.
Upon studying of the most recent costs towards Lee, Cady expressed frustration with Gascón’s repeated justification of his juvenile insurance policies by citing research displaying adolescent mind improvement isn’t full till age 25.
“The idea is that the mind wasn’t developed and gained’t be till they’re 26,” she stated. “But, they’re set free earlier than they’re 26.”
Michelle Brace, Ruh’s widow, stated she felt betrayed by Lee’s alleged actions close to Compton.
“Denmonne, you got a present and also you squandered that reward. Towards my household’s needs, I had hope that you’d change and assist your neighborhood. I’ll all the time pray for you and your security. You broke my coronary heart after I heard you had been in bother once more,” she stated in courtroom earlier this month. “You gave me hope while you apologized to me about killing … my husband. I forgave you, now I really feel like a idiot.”
In an interview, Brace stated that though she supported Lee’s progress within the juvenile system, she has lengthy been annoyed with Gascón’s preliminary refusal to strive him as an grownup.
“He didn’t know what he was doing together with his directives and the lives they’d shatter,” stated Brace, who plans to go away California, however not earlier than the November election. “I gained’t transfer till George Gascón is out of workplace.”
