Van Houten was convicted and sentenced to death , but a California Supreme Court ruling found the death penalty unconstitutional, resulting in her sentence being commuted to life in prison. Her conviction was overturned in a appellate court decision which granted her a retrial.
Her second trial ended with a deadlocked jury and a mistrial. At her third trial in , she was convicted of two counts of murder and one count of conspiracy and sentenced to seven years to life in prison. She grew up in a middle-class churchgoing family along with an older brother and two adopted siblings, a brother and a sister, who were Korean.
Her mother and father divorced when she was She began smoking marijuana, and around the age of 15, began taking LSD. At 17, she ran away with her boyfriend, but returned to complete high school, graduating from Monrovia High School in Monrovia, California in She had a period of interest in yoga and took a year-long secretarial course, but became a hippie , living at a commune.
After a few months in a commune in Northern California, Van Houten met Catherine Share and Bobby Beausoleil and moved in with them and another woman during the summer of The four broke up after jealous arguments, and Share left to join Charles Manson 's commune. Van Houten, then aged 19, followed Share. At that time, she phoned her mother to say she was dropping out and would not be making contact again.
Manson decided when they would eat, sleep, and have sex, and with whom they would have sex. He also controlled the taking of LSD, giving followers larger doses than he himself took. Of no thought. From August , Manson and his followers were based at the Spahn Ranch. Manson ostensibly ran his Family based on hippie-style principles of acceptance and free love. At the remote ranch, where they were isolated from any other influences, Manson's was the only opinion heard.
