After deliberating for two days, a Los Angles County jury Monday found a Hermosa Beach woman guilty of second-degree murder for killing a 65-year-old Latino man with her car nearly three years ago.

Beginning next week, the jury will now examine all of the evidence in the case to determine whether or not Marie Elise West, 39, was sane or insane during the time of the murder that occurred in September 2000 in the city of Van Nuys.

The jury was asked to decide whether West was guilty or not guilty of either first-degree or second-degree murder and if West killed Jesus Plascencia because he was a Latino (an added hate crime charge) argued by prosecutor John Allen Ramseyer. West pleaded not guilty to the crime along with a not guilty plea by reason of insanity. If found sane, West could spend up to 15 years in state prison and if found insane she will be sent to live in a mental hospital indefinitely. The first-degree murder conviction, if she were found sane, would have put her in prison for life without the possibility of parole.

“I just wish the jury would have also been given manslaughter instructions because if it had, it would have ended up a manslaughter conviction,” said West’s husband, Al Bowman. “I feel that when my mother, myself (Bowman is half Latino), her former housekeeper who is Hispanic and her co-worker at her brother’s law office, Salvador Robles, all testified on the same day, that whole hate crime allegation went right out the window. There are a half dozen people who are Hispanic on that jury who look at her as if she is ‘esta loco.’ It was the best we were going to get and if the jury looks at the medical facts during the sanity phase of the trial I think they will make the right decision and send her back to the hospital where she belongs.”

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge initially deemed West mentally incompetent to stand trial for allegedly running down and killing Plascencia during the early morning hours of Sept. 1, 2000, because of his ethnicity. In a public announcement, prosecutors said they would not seek the death penalty for West, who was charged with murder with special circumstances. In December, the court ruled that West was competent to stand trial for murder.

In June, a judge appointed two psychiatrists to determine the mental state of West, who pleaded not guilty to the charge of murder in May.

Originally, Judge Michael S. Luros ordered that West be sent to Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino, based on reports written by the prosecutor’s and defendant’s psychiatrists, both of whom were in agreement of West’s mental condition. West would remain at Patton and would stand trial if and when doctors ever thought her competency had returned.

The court reviews competency in how a defendant is able to communicate with their attorney and aid in their defense. Everything changed for West in May when the court modified its ruling and now considers her competent to return to court for the proceedings.

Last year, Patton Hospital informed the court that West was now competent but these assertions were dismissed after a San Bernardino judge ruled she was not competent to face assault charges against an employee at the medical center.

According to witnesses, West ran down Plascencia with her Volvo as the elderly man walked out of a bagel store and into the parking lot near the corner of Stagg Street and Sepulveda Boulevard. West dragged the man 30 yards out of the parking lot and into the intersection where officers eventually found his body. After killing Plascencia, West drove back into the parking lot and bought a bagel after making ethnic slurs and commenting on the dead “road kill” in the street.

Plascencia worked as a busboy for Weiler’s Deli in Van Nuys for 20 years. His daily routine began around 4 a.m. when he would pick up bagels for the deli owner at the bagel store.

Several days after the crime, Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Jacquelyn Lacey filed a special circumstance of hate crime to the murder charge, meaning prosecutors could seek the death penalty since they claim the crime was racially motivated. In June, prosecutors announced they would not seek the death penalty.

West’s attorney, Angelyn Gates, argued that she is bipolar and was suffering from a manic episode during the time of the incident. District Attorney Ramseyer argued the incident was a premeditated hate crime in which West was waiting to kill Plascencia.

According to City News Service, Ramseyer said that West made several comments that exhibit a prejudice toward Latinos just days before the incident.

“Roberto Ramirez testified that West came to a Redondo Beach tire store two days before the killing and refused to give him the keys to her Volvo,” reported City News Service. “‘I’m not gonna give my keys to any Mexican,’ he recalled her saying. Another worker testified that West referred to two men painting a building, said she ‘didn’t like Hispanic guys’ and should notify immigration. The next day, West reportedly was fired from her waitressing job for making derogatory statements about two Latino cooks.”

Bowman said he attempted to hide the car keys from his wife the night of the killing but that she found a spare set and drove off. Gates argued that West was suffering from hallucinations during the week of the incident. She also argued that West is not a racist with the testimony of several family members and friends.

“Although Ramseyer didn’t dispute that West has some kind of mental illness, he denied she was in a manic state or hallucinating when the killing occurred,” reported City News Service. “Ramseyer said West and Plascencia had driven the same way to get to the bagel shop, and something must have happened along the route to irk West. Ramseyer hypothesized that Plascencia, who was there to make his daily bagel purchase for the deli where he worked, might have cut West off or driven too slowly before they arrived at the store about the same time. Ramseyer told jurors West backed her car up and waited for Plascencia to leave the shop. After being run over once, Plascencia was still alive, the prosecutor said, but West came back and rolled her car over him several more times, while dragging the body.”

Bowman has also said in the past West has been in and out of hospitals several times for the chemical imbalance and she had been taking 17 different medications prior to the crime. He also claims that his wife’s mental condition is genetic.

“With four doctors testifying to her mental state, I do believe mental illness through lineage to be the most legitimate type of mental illness,” said Bowman. “A lot of mental illness in today’s society is from people addicted to substances and becoming permanently screwed up, and they have to take new medications to counter all of the illegal drugs they did like crystal meth. But with her, she is legitimately messed up in the head because it’s in the family bloodline in that it’s handed down through the genetic code from generation to generation. It will be one of those rare cases, I hope, that the jury will say not guilty by reason of insanity.”

West was diagnosed as bipolar in 1990 and prior to that had exhibited promise in the area of academics as a student at UC Berkeley’s Boalt Law School. Bowman said West was on the medication Neurontin, which is a drug that is now the source of numerous lawsuits. In 2003, Parke-Davis, manufacturer of the drug, was accused of inappropriately marketing it to treat conditions other than epilepsy such as bipolar disorder. People claiming suicidal side effects brought a class-action lawsuit against the company.