by Robert Scott
Judge Torvinen then pronounced sentence upon Phillip Garrido. “Upon the entry of the plea of guilty to the indictment, Count one, forcible rape, a felony, it is the judgment of the court that the defendant is guilty, and it is the sentence of the court that he be sentenced to the Nevada State Prison for a term of life. As I understand the statute, it is with the possibility of parole. The sentence is to run concurrent with the sentence of the interstate kidnapping by the federal government, that I understand is fifty years. He is sentenced first from the federal court, and it will be the order of the court that he fulfill the federal sentence before required to maintain the balance of the term under the Nevada state sentence. Counts two and three will be dismissed.”
Phil spoke up and added his two cents to the proceedings. “Your Honor, I would like to say one more thing that I didn’t want to say before. I feel I will be able to be helped more in the federal prison because of the facilities and psychiatric treatment.”
Phil Garrido was transferred to Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary in Kansas on June 30, 1977, to begin serving his term for the kidnapping case. And almost immediately, he put in motion an appeal on his sentencing. This went through the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and was dealt with by two circuit judges and one district judge. A part of the appeal dealt with his mental state at the time of the offense. Phil argued that if he was too influenced by drugs to know what he was doing, he shouldn’t be sentenced as if he had full capacity of his reasoning.
While in the federal prison, Phil also wrote a letter to Judge Bruce Thompson. In it, he wrote, When living at home and going to school, my life was free from the influences of drugs. I had been raised in the country and lived in a very clean home. I was the baby of the family and spoiled in the long run.
Phil then noted that drugs were starting to make their way into Brentwood by 1969, and he began smoking marijuana. From there, it was just a short step for him to the use of LSD. Of LSD use, he wrote, It took me to another style of living and thinking, in the long run I lost much of my reasoning powers. Seven years of using made me fall from reality.
Phil then related that on his own initiative he was seeing psychiatrist Dr. Kiehlbauch in Leavenworth Prison and said that he was making great progress on mental health issues. He had also finished high school and was preparing to take college courses. He was in carpentry shop in prison and planned to enroll in an apprentice carpentry program, which would last for four years. He also enrolled in drafting school. Phil said that after four years of that, he planned on taking two years of computer courses. (At that time, computers were just in their infancy and mysterious except for a handful of professionals.)
Phil wrote, I have set my goals and find myself well on my way. It shall take seven years of schooling to complete the courses. In all respects my life has changed. Of course, that is because I wanted to, knowing this is my chance to get my life in line. Drugs have been my down fall. I am so ashamed of my past. But my future is now in control.
Phil ended the letter by stating that all he wanted was a chance. What exactly he wanted from Judge Thompson, he didn’t state. Perhaps he wanted a favorable report from Judge Thompson to the court of appeals.
On his behalf, Phil also got letters from the warden at Leavenworth, a psychiatrist, and his caseworker there. Warden IRL Day wrote on April 12, 1978, to Leland Lutfy, who had requested information about Phil’s time in Leavenworth since being incarcerated. Lutfy had requested to know about Phil’s medical, psychiatric, and educational progress so far. Day said that follow-up letters would be coming from the psychology staff. And then Day added: Mr. Garrido has been involved in individual counseling with our psychology staff. We trust this information will be helpful to you.
A report put together by Phil’s case manager, R. Rose, noted, Mr. Garrido was initially designated close-custody and regular duty status. The classification team assigned Mr. Garrido to work in the carpentry shop and recommended that he seek educational instruction to prepare for future college enrollment and that he also seek counseling to improve his self-control in avoiding future chemical abuse.
The report noted that in carpentry shop, Phil was responsible for using woodworking equipment in making cabinets. He got on-the-job training and weekly classroom training. His work supervisor rated Phil as average in his skill, work habits, and care of equipment. His supervisor states that he shows regular attendance on the job, gets along well with the others, reacts well to authority, and accepts responsibility. In fact, Phil was receiving meritorious good time for his responsibilities in the carpenter shop.
Rose related that Phil had been an active participant in the educational program on a half-day basis since August 1, 1977. Phil’s initial goal was to get a GED, which he accomplished. His supervisor stated that Phil had elevated his academic level significantly, and Phil had enrolled for eight hours of college course work for the summer of 1978. Mr. Garrido’s supervisor within the Education Department states that he is an exemplary student and cooperative in all respects. Phil’s long-range goal was to complete the computer college course and perhaps one day be involved in that field.
The report noted that in Phil’s spare time, he practiced playing guitar, participated in church activities, exercised in the athletic yard, and occasionally went to institution movies. Phil phoned his mother on a weekly basis and also wrote to his father and brother. No one had come to visit Phil while he was incarcerated in Leavenworth.
Mr. Garrido appears to be in good physical and mental health and complains of no health problems at this time. It would not be anticipated that health problems would seriously restrict future employability.
Clinical psychologist John B. Kiehlbauch and psychologist trainee Ian Fluger put together a psychological evaluation of Phil in regard to Phil’s asking for reduction of sentence. The report began that Phil appeared as an adequately nourished, “pleasant-appearing” twenty-seven-year-old male. Phil was verbal from the initial contact, cooperative, candid, and volunteered information readily, even information that was critical of him.
A short history of Phil’s arrests was followed by the comment: Mr. Garrido is the product of a prosocial middle class family, now broken, from which he inculcated generally appropriate values, though he describes himself as over-condoned and pampered by his parents. He describes himself as a semi-professional musician. There is a current marriage of unknown prospect, and no children have resulted from it.
The report noted that Phil had done very well in raising his academic standards and in carpentry shop. He also had been faithful to his mental-health regime, which focused on developing basic personality strengths and resolving immediate conflict areas and self-awareness in lifestyle patterns. Phil still said that he had flashbacks from LSD usage, but these were diminishing in frequency and in severity.
Several tests had been administered upon Phil, including the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS), Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test, Rotter Incomplete Sentence Blank (RISB), Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), Rorschach Psychodiagnostic Instrument (RORS), and Mental Status Examination (MSE).
Testing revealed that Phil’s IQ was at the upper end of the average range, being 110. His functional intelligence seemed to be improving as time passed away from LSD usage. The MMPI revealed that he fell within average boundaries. The Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test showed that Phil was average, except for a strong sense of “approval-seeking behaviors.”
The RISB reflected Mr. Garrido as a “sensitive young man” who was religious and sought to address his problems. It was noted that when he approached a new project, he did so with extreme zeal and diligence. He reflected careful attention to detail in things that he pursued. There was also one more significant sentence: He might appear compulsive in many of his pursuits.
The TAT showed that Phil had an active imagination and also understood symbolism. He had religious feelings that helped him in his daily life.
The
RORS showed that he was mainly “form determined,” but also responded to color cards. Phil had a tendency toward using fantasy to resolve his needs.
The MSE revealed a prosocial attitude in that he was cooperative and sincere. Phil was a likeable young man and engendered positive feelings in others. Recent memory was good, but distant memory was still clouded by his past drug use. Phil’s concepts of time, space, and person were adequate.
In summary, the report stressed that Phil Garrido was a young man of average intelligence who used his intelligence to achieve his goals. He had progressed very well in both his educational training and therapy while in prison.
And now came the most important part of the report. The psychologist recommended that Phil’s current sentence be moderated to parole eligibility and that he be paroled when his therapy goals had been fulfilled. The psychologist also recommended that Phil be part of a mental-health treatment program once he was released from prison. The psychologist thought that Phil’s transition into the community at large was positive, and the likelihood that he would reoffend was minimal.
In essence, the psychologists at Leavenworth were asking that Phil be let out of prison sometime in 1981, after he had completed his courses in the penitentiary. They also contended that once he was let out of prison, his chances of doing anything like another kidnapping and rape were “minimal.”
Leland Lutfy wasn’t buying any of this. His motion declared in part, Mr. Garrido treated this girl (Katie Callaway) no better than he would a side of beef. Lutfy believed that Garrido, despite his protestations that he was a changed man, was still a very dangerous individual.
In the end, the United States Court of Appeals took all of this information into account and denied Phil Garrido a reduction of sentence. For the time being, he wasn’t going anywhere beyond the walls of Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary. And yet, changes were coming to him from an unexpected quarter. A young woman named Nancy Bocanegra was about to enter the walls of the prison as a visitor, and neither her life nor Phil’s would ever be the same.
CHAPTER 15
NANCY
In the years to come, there would be a great deal of mystery about just who Nancy Bocanegra Garrido was. In fact, the misinformation blended with the actual information until it was difficult to separate fact from fiction. There would be stories that Nancy was born in the Philippines and that she and her family emigrated to the United States. The truth of the matter was, Nancy was born Nancy Bocanegra on July 18, 1955, in Bexar County, Texas.
In school, Nancy was bright, but also quiet and shy. That was an aspect about her that would carry through into her later years—she blended into the background, and virtually no one could remember anything about her. Unlike Phil Garrido in his high-school days, where people remembered him either as being “dreamy” or a “weirdo,” Nancy was barely remembered at all.
One of the very few people to shed any light at all on this period of Nancy’s life was her brother David. He said that she was a “normal kid.” She had friends and went out with them, doing what average teenage girls did.
Nancy and her family moved from Texas to Denver, Colorado. It was there that Nancy studied nursing and eventually got a job as a nursing aide. And Nancy, like Phil Garrido, was a Jehovah’s Witness. Basically, Jehovah’s Witnesses believed in the literal truth of the Bible, and that the Bible stories were not mere myths or vague examples of how to live one’s life. Jehovah’s Witnesses had tight-knit communities at their Kingdom Halls. And they often sent out pairs of individuals to proselytize about their beliefs.
One story is that Nancy Bocanegra first met Phil Garrido at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary when she went to visit her uncle who was in that prison. The year was 1980, and almost immediately Phil, who was now divorced, began courting Nancy. When Phil was on his best behavior, he could be very charming. Even the prison psychologist attested to that. And to diminutive and pretty Nancy Bocanegra, Phil was charming indeed.
Another story is that Phil and Nancy met in prison because of their common thread of being Jehovah’s Witnesses. Phil did attend Jehovah’s Witness religious services while in prison. This ambiguity about Nancy would become a common theme about most of the rest of her life from 1980 onward. Except for very few occasions, there was no actual documentation to nail down facts about her life. One thing is certain, however; she and Phil began a long-distance relationship by mail. And as time moved on, Nancy made numerous trips from Denver to Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary.
Then on October 14, 1981, Phil and Nancy were married in Leavenworth. Two inmates acted as witnesses, while a pastor performed the ceremony. A prison official took a photograph of the pair, and this, too, would become one of the few legacies of Nancy’s life during that period of time. In the photo, Phil and Nancy were wrapped up in each other’s arms. Phil had a dark moustache and deep blue eyes. He also exposed his hairy chest above the unbuttoned portion of his shirt. Phil looked as if he was ready to go out to a disco, rather than facing an indeterminate amount of time being locked behind prison bars.
Nancy, on the other hand, looked absolutely enraptured by Phil. In the photograph, she holds on tightly to him. And while Phil stared directly at the camera, Nancy gazed adoringly at Phil.
Eventually Nancy moved to the city of Leavenworth, just to be closer to Phil. Even here, her time in Leavenworth was nearly a complete cipher. One of the few people to note her time there was her landlord, John Saunders. Saunders basically recalled her, not because of the impression she made on him, but because of the lack of one. He said that she “must have been a good tenant,” because she got her deposit back when she moved.
All information about Nancy was hard to come by, even when she lived for a while in Leavenworth. As it turned out, she lived on South Broadway on a tree-lined street. While not the most luxurious part of town, it was a pleasant street with nice homes and rental units. The Carroll Mansion, a large Victorian home built in 1867, was not far away from where Nancy resided at the time.
As usual, Nancy found a job as a nurse, and here, too, it was the lack of anything negative that defined her. She went to Leavenworth Penitentiary at every opportunity to see Phil, and for five years they lived this married but separate life.
In May 1984, Phil had his first parole board hearing. The five-member review board decided that Phil was still too much a danger to society and denied his request for an early release. They also wrote in the report, The board finds that further evaluation of your progress is necessary. Release at this time would depreciate the seriousness of the crime.
Phil tried again in March 1986, with the same results. Nonetheless, Phil was about to get a change of scene. He was transferred to the medium-security prison at Lompoc, California. This facility was considered one of the “cushiest” in the federal system. This move prompted Nancy to follow him, and she did so by moving in with her mother-in-law, Patricia Franzen, on Walnut Avenue, near Antioch. Even being there, it was still a 250-mile drive for Nancy down to Lompoc, which was on the central California coast.
It was while living with Patricia Franzen that Nancy had one of her very few interactions with the law. In fact, her brother had said of Nancy that she never even had a speeding ticket.
On October 18, 1987, while riding with Patricia in her vehicle, near Brentwood, Nancy was a passenger during an automobile accident. This happened at the intersection of Walnut Avenue and Dainty Avenue. The accident involved an uninsured motorist, and it was serious enough that both Patricia and Nancy were named as plaintiffs in court papers against the uninsured motorist.
The court papers recorded as reasons for the action: wage loss, hospital and medical expenses, property damage, loss of use of property, loss of earning capacity. Even though whose hospitalization and medical treatment were not mentioned, it’s quite possible that Nancy was part of that situation. Why else name Nancy in the court action if Patricia Franzen was the only one involved?
Eventually the court action wasn’t necessary, bec
ause Patricia’s Allstate policy covered uninsured motorists. And then, like a ghost, Nancy Garrido disappeared into the background as usual. She was so invisible, many people on Walnut Avenue didn’t know that she was living in Pat Franzen’s house. Even next-door neighbor Helen Boyer said later that she hardly ever saw Nancy out in the yard. And when Helen did, Nancy only spoke a few words to her.
On November 5, 1987, two examiners from the U.S. Parole Commission met with Phil Garrido at Lompoc. And once again, Phil told them about how he had changed since kidnapping and raping Katie Callaway in 1976. On the surface, it appeared as if he really had changed. Phil had a good conduct record in prison, a good work record, and excellent reports from staff members and psychiatrists. Not only that, he had a wife and mother waiting for him in Antioch. Phil said that because of being in prison, he no longer had any taste for illegal drugs, which, he said, had been his ruination. And Phil spoke at great length about his religious beliefs and how those beliefs had made him a changed man.
The examiners bought it. In January 1988, Phil was discharged from serving federal prison time, and he was transferred to Nevada state custody. This was because he still had to serve time for his sentencing in the Washoe County court system when he made his plea deal. In what would become a very complex entanglement of different judicial entities, Phil was granted a U.S. Parole Commission’s Certificate of Parole, even though he still had to spend time behind prison bars in Nevada. The certificate, in part, read: Said prisoner has substantially observed the rules of the institution, and in the opinion of the Commission said prisoner’s release would not depreciate the seriousness of this offense or promise disrespect for the law, and would not jeopardize the public welfare.
