LAKE COUNTY – A woman convicted for running over her infant son three times with her car in August 1986 was denied parole for the fourth time during a Thursday hearing at the Central California Women”s Facility State Prison in Chowchilla, according to Lake County Chief Deputy District Attorney Richard Hinchcliff.
Hinchcliff argued against the release of former Lakeport resident Leah Ann Jack, 42. The parole commission denied her parole, saying Jack did not have viable parole plans and had not participated sufficiently in substance abuse treatment while in prison, making her a danger to public safety, according to Hinchcliff. He said he believes Jack may be released at her next parole hearing in two years, or at the next hearing after that.
“The board of parole hearings is going to become more liberal, and she”s (Jack) been there 22 years already. The state legislature, from what I”ve heard, is trying to get rid of some commissioners that have been there a while and replace them with ones that are less law enforcement-oriented,” Hinchcliff said.
Jack was convicted March 10, 1987 of second-degree murder and the use of a deadly weapon. According to investigation reports, Jack was under the influence of cocaine and methamphetamine when she drove the baby and her other two young children to Highway 175 Hopland west of Lakeport and ran over the 37-day-old baby. According to Hinchcliff, Jack then threw the baby”s body over the side of the road, where investigators found it after relatives reported the baby missing.
According to Hinchcliff, Jack told her four-year-old, “You”re next.” She told an emergency medical technician she ran over the infant because he would not stop crying, then later told investigators she wasn”t sure why she had done it, but suspected it was because the baby had “gotten on her nerves,” he said.
Jack also told investigators she had planned to kill her other two children, according to Hinchcliff.
He said Jack initially claimed temporary insanity. An evaluation at Napa State Hospital found that Jack was faking incompetence, according to Hinchcliff, and she was sent back to face charges after five months at the hospital.
Jack was sentenced to 16 years to life in prison, and had her first parole eligibility hearing in December 1996. Hinchcliff said because Jack”s crime was against her own family member and because she has made progress during her time in state prison, she may eventually be released on parole.
“I think there”s a reasonable chance that someday she”s going to end up being paroled, and this is very unusual. [For] most people who get convicted of murder, the circumstances of the crime, their lack of adequate rehab in prison and other factors keep them from eventually being paroled. In this case, it was a personal murder of her own baby, not someone else”s child, and she”s suffered for that too,” Hinchcliff said.
He said Jack has taken college classes, participated in the prison”s work program, and has been involved in groups such as the prison hospice association, and has been “a little lacking” in her drug rehabilitation program.
