The recent release of a serial rapist who drugged young women in college bars in the late 1990s has sparked outrage in the San Gabriel Valley community where the man, heir to a cosmetics fortune, reportedly resides.
Andrew Stuart Luster, the great-grandson of Max Factor, was convicted in 2003 of 86 counts of poisoning, rape, sodomy and oral copulation of unconscious victims. A jury was shown a video he made showing him engaging in sexual acts with women rendered unconscious by GHB, the so-called date rape drug.
Glendora Mayor David Fredendall said in a statement Friday that his community was “outraged” by Luster’s release, which he attributed to voter-approved California laws that make it easier for people convicted of nonviolent crimes to be released early.
“Glendora residents should not have to worry for their safety because of a state decision that allows someone with a history of rape and violence to now live near schools, parks, playgrounds, churches and community centers. They deserve better than the explanations that lie behind the mechanics of a deeply flawed system,” Fredenall said in the press release.
Luster’s case gained media attention when he fled to Mexico in 2003 after posting $1 million bail. He was later captured in Puerto Vallarta by American bounty hunter and reality TV personality Duane “Dog” Chapman.
Luster, 62, was released on parole on Oct. 11 “after serving his entire sentence as required by law,” according to a statement from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation last week. The department said Luster was eligible and had accrued 977 days of work and good conduct credit toward release.
“This is not an early release,” the ministry said.
Luster’s crime, the rape of an unconscious person, technically qualifies as a nonviolent offense, the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office explained to KCLU in 2023.
Typically, people convicted of a nonviolent crime must serve 50 percent of their sentence. Luster was sentenced to 124 years in prison in 2003; however, in 2013 this sentence was reduced to 50 years. He has since served approximately 25 of those years, including time spent under house arrest and pre-trial detention.
Two years ago, a corrections board decided to grant Luster early parole, over the objections of the three victims, who appeared at the hearing and argued against release. Prosecutors with the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office challenged the decision, arguing that Luster continued to misrepresent the nature of his crimes and remained a threat to public safety. The decision was later overturned by the majority of parole board commissioners.
District of Ventura County. Atty. Erik Nasarenko said last year that his office would “continue to vigorously oppose any early release from state prison.” But his office stressed that because Luster’s sentence was reduced despite “vehement opposition” from prosecutors, Luster would still be released at the end of 2026.
When Judge Kathryne Ann Stoltz overturned Luster’s 124-year sentence in 2013, she expressed skepticism about most of the arguments made by Luster’s lawyers during more than a week of hearings, but acknowledged that his sentence was unusually long and should be reconsidered, according to The Times’ archival coverage.
Stolz called the criminal recordings from his trial “disturbing,” with the victims appearing lifeless. Luster “ogles, smiles and gloats at the camera,” she wrote. She pointed out that while he was on the run in Mexico, he compiled what he called a “recovery list” with the names of Ventura County prosecutors, sheriff’s deputies, his victims and one of his attorneys.
His lawyers had argued that the escape was instigated by a former lawyer of Luster’s who frightened him into fleeing for his life, repeatedly telling him that he would be killed in prison. But in her decision, Stoltz made clear that she believed her departure for Mexico was voluntary.
The voter-approved law, Proposition 57, was passed in 2016 and aimed to address overcrowding in state prisons. Under the law, state corrections officials gained new authority to grant sentence credits to reduce time spent in prison and allow nonviolent offenders to appear before the parole board more frequently, among other changes.
Times Staff Writer Clara Harter contributed to this report.
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