A person who pleaded responsible to brutally raping and murdering a lady in San Luis Obispo County is ready to stroll free after Gov. Gavin Newsom refused to dam his parole — regardless of a prosecutor’s repeated pleas to maintain him behind bars.
Alberto Tamez Jr., 75, who was convicted of viciously raping and strangling Genevieve Adaline Moreno in 1974, was granted parole by the state board late final yr regardless of San Luis Obispo County District Lawyer Dan Dow preventing his launch at each step.
Newsom’s workplace may have intervened and saved Tamez locked up, however selected to chop him free — main Dow to sentence the governor’s inaction.
“I believe the proper factor can be to cease letting violent criminals out of our prisons simply to fulfill his coverage need to empty prisons,” Dow solely instructed The California Submit.
“I can’t change the system he created with out letting voters know the way susceptible they’re by letting out harmful criminals to empty prisons,” he added. “I believe the governor shouldn’t be letting everybody out, however he’s made no bones about it.”
Newsom has not publicly addressed his determination and his workplace didn’t reply to the Submit’s request for remark.
“Once you rape, strangle, brutalize and homicide a lady — in my perspective and viewpoint — that needs to be the loss of life penalty or life with out parole,” Dow stated.
The governor’s lack of motion within the Tamez case has led to shock and anger, because it comes on the heels of different of high-profile parole choices.
He’s certainly one of a number of inmates who’ve just lately benefited from California’s parole reforms, particularly the Newsom-backed Aged Parole Program, which permits inmates 50 or older who’ve served at the very least 20 years behind bars to hunt parole consideration.
Gregory Lee Vogelsang, a 57-year-old Sacramento-area little one molester, was sentenced to 355 years to life for kidnapping and molesting 5 boys. He was granted parole in late 2025 earlier than the parole board later agreed to rethink the discharge.
David Allen Funston, a serial little one molester convicted in 1999 of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a number of kids youthful than 7 in Sacramento County, was additionally set for launch after a parol board determination till Placer County prosecutors stepped in with new fees.
Israel Ceja, a Yolo County man, was sentenced to 139 years in jail in 2000 for repeatedly raping and molesting his stepdaughter starting when she was 11 years outdated. Ceja, who later admitted throughout a parole listening to that he was nonetheless drawn to younger women, was initially advisable for launch earlier than the parole board reversed the choice after backlash from Yolo County District Lawyer Jeff Reisig.
Dow stated his workplace repeatedly fought towards Tamez’s launch, together with sending a deputy district legal professional to oppose his parole in the course of the December board listening to.
“When California reforms the system, policymakers concentrate on making it extra compassionate for criminals whereas forgetting concerning the impression on victims,” the prosecutor continued. “I believe Californians are at a degree the place they’ve had sufficient.”
GOP gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton additionally ripped Newsom over the choice.
“I’m sick of listening to from Gavin Newsom that he has no energy to intervene in these outrageous and disgusting choices,” he instructed The Submit. “That’s whole bulls–t and he is aware of it.”
Tamez pleaded no contest in 1974 after concentrating on Moreno, 56, who was working a shift at a bar within the blue-collar farming neighborhood of Nipomo. Her badly overwhelmed physique was found a few quarter-mile away in a discipline underneath a grove of eucalyptus timber.
He pleaded no contest to first-degree homicide and was sentenced to life in jail with the potential of parole. Dow argued that nobody at the moment of his conviction would have ever anticipated he’d go free at the moment.
“In 1974, at the moment when he was sentenced, no one was ever getting launched for his sort of crime. The legislation didn’t permit for it,” Dow stated.
“Good conduct didn’t imply something — the heinousness of the crime saved you in jail.”
Now, many years later and with no surviving household to talk on Moreno’s behalf, her killer will probably be launched into society. The homicide in the summertime of 1974 stays haunting to today.
Investigators recognized Tamez because the lone attacker after discovering blood on his garments and particles from the crime scene caught to his clothes. He admitted to dragging Moreno from the bar, beating her whereas she begged him to cease and leaving her unconscious after he may now not detect her respiratory, in keeping with prosecutors.
The district legal professional stated his workplace has more and more tried to shift public consideration again towards crime victims as an alternative of offenders.
“As a part of my function as president of the California District Attorneys Affiliation, my workplace has began utilizing the phrase ‘prison and sufferer justice system’ as an alternative of ‘prison justice system,’” Dow stated.
“Persevering with to name it the ‘prison justice system’ overlooks the truth that each crime has a sufferer.”
