Panel orders state to release ‘Clawhammer killer’ who caught COVID at San Quentin

A convicted Orange County murderer who contracted the coronavirus after an outbreak ravaged San Quentin State Prison this summer will be released 10 years early into a residential parole program after an appellate court ruled the prisons department treated him and other inmates with deliberate indifference.

The 43-page opinion by a unanimous three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal on Tuesday ordered Ivan Von Staich, known as the "clawhammer killer," to be transferred to either another state prison or an outside facility that follows adequate health guidelines. His attorney, Richard Braucher of the First Appellate Project, said Tuesday his client has been accepted into a residential parole program and is "ready to reenter society."

The order also directed the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to reduce the population of San Quentin to no more than 1,775 prisoners, a 50% reduction of its June population. In re Ivan Von Staich on Habeas Corpus, A160122.

"This is a brave court," said Braucher in an interview Tuesday. "The court has taken a stand for this extremely vulnerable population that has suffered far more than the greater society has during this pandemic."

The panel, comprised of Justice J. Anthony Kline, James A. Richman and Therese M. Stewart, seemed hesitant during oral argument in September to halve San Quentin's population. Kline said he wasn't confident his court had the ability to do that.

But during a case management conference in August, Kline said he was "baffled" that the state was unwilling to settle this case outside of normal court procedures, and he sharply critiqued the conditions inside San Quentin, particularly the West Block, where Von Staich and his cell mate had contracted the virus.

"By all accounts, the COVID-19 outbreak at San Quentin has been the worst epidemiological disaster in California correctional history," said the court's opinion, written by Kline.

The court dismissed arguments from Deputy Attorney General Kathleen R. Walton that Von Staich's petition for habeas corpus should be considered duplicative of one of the pending class actions that are contesting the state's treatment of inmates, namely the 20-year Plata v. Newsom litigation.

Staich was convicted in 1986 of second-degree murder and attempted murder and was sentenced to 30 years to life by Orange County Superior Court Judge Robert R. Fitzgerald. Court records show he cut the phone lines outside his ex-girlfriend's Santa Ana home, broke in and brutally beat her husband with a clawhammer before shooting him to death. Von Staich also shot and beat his ex-girlfriend during the break-in, leaving her so severely wounded she remained in a coma for months after the attack.

Braucher said during oral argument the crimes were "inexcusable." But he said Von Staich "is not presently dangerous," evidenced by the more than 20 years in which he has remained free of any substantial disciplinary problems.

A spokeswoman said the prisons department disagrees with the ruling, arguing "cases are the lowest they have been since May, with San Quentin recording only one new case among the incarcerated population in nearly a month."

She said the department is reviewing the decision to determine its next steps.