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An illegal immigrant from Mexico serving a 139-year prison sentence for raping and impregnating his underage stepdaughter will be eligible to seek early parole for a second time in the coming months due to a loophole in a law signed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Israel Ceja’s early release was blocked Wednesday after a review by an en banc parole board convened by Newsom following pressure from Yolo County District Attorney Jeffrey Reisig. An official with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation confirmed to Fox News Digital that a new hearing has been ordered for Ceja.
Reisig is calling on Newsom and California lawmakers to “stop the madness” by closing the loopholes in the state’s Elderly Release Program that allow child rapists to be considered eligible for parole.
“Nobody wants this,” Reisig told Fox News Digital. “The general public does not want this, and all they’re doing is victimizing, re-victimizing the victims and the communities. Nobody wants these guys coming back to their community.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom takes questions from the media after announcing the state is suing the White House to restore SNAP funding before the cutoff during a news conference in Sacramento, Calif. (Fred Greaves/Reuters)
A jury convicted Ceja, 63, in 2000 for his years-long abuse of his stepdaughter, Roxanne Cruz, which began when she was 11 years old in 1993. With roughly 20% of his sentence served, Ceja was granted early release by a two-commissioner parole board panel in January, which did not consult the victim or notify the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office that prosecuted him more than 20 years ago, according to Reisig.
“It’s twisted,” Reisig said. “This is twisted stuff.”
In 2020, Newsom signed a law amending the Elderly Release Program by lowering the eligibility age for inmates to 50 years old with 20 years served. The program was established in 2014 with eligibility set at 65 with 25 years served. Democrats advanced the law in a package of criminal justice reforms intended to address overcrowding prisons.
While prisoners deemed three-strike offenders, serving life without parole, or facing the death penalty are ineligible for the program, criminals convicted of violent crimes — including sex crimes against children — are eligible.
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Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig is calling on California Gov. Gavin Newsom and California lawmakers to close the loopholes allowing child sex predators to be eligible for early release (Yolo County District Attorney)
Fox News Digital reported in February that David Allen Funston, who kidnapped and molested at least eight children in the Sacramento area in the 1990s, was granted parole under the Elderly Release Program.
Both Democratic and Republican California lawmakers have introduced legislation in recent months to ensure convicted molesters aren’t eligible for early release.
One of those measures introduced by California Republican state Sen. Roger Niello was killed in the Senate Public Safety Committee earlier this week.
Niello said in a press release that he was “disheartened” that his measure, which would exclude criminals convicted of rape, sodomy, lewd and lascivious acts and other sex offenses from elderly parole eligibility, was defeated.
Last month, Democratic state Assembly member Stephanie Nguyen introduced Assembly Bill 2727, which raises the age for convicted sex offenders to seek parole from 50 to 65 and requires them to undergo a psychological evaluation through the Department of State Hospitals. While the measure passed the Assembly Public Safety Committee earlier this month, the final markup gutted provisions that would ban violent sex offenders sentenced to life from ever seeking early release.
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David Allen Funston, convicted in 1999 of multiple counts of kidnapping and child molestation in Sacramento County, was granted parole suitability under California’s Elderly Parole Program after serving more than two decades in prison. (@sacsheriff/X)
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Reisig called on Newsom to issue an executive order that bans child molesters from the program, citing Newsom’s previous order placing a moratorium on the death penalty as evidence that he has the power.
“He could issue a moratorium on any elderly parole releases of child rapists with the stroke of a pen,” Reisig said. “He doesn’t want to admit that, but he did it for the death penalty. He could do it here.”
“Step up, protect children,” Resig continued. “Stop allowing child rapists to get out early.”
An official from Newsom’s office noted that the governor only has the power to reverse a parole grant in murder cases, adding that in all other cases the governor can only refer a decision back to the Board of Parole Hearings for full commissioner review.
Less than 12% of scheduled parole hearings result in parole grants by the Board, which the official attributed to commissioners relying on “stringent” and “numerous” steps involving the “use of validated risk assessment tools” in their decision-making. Commissioners seek to ensure grantees “pose no unreasonable risk to public safety.”
But during Ceja’s parole hearing, Ceja admitted to the commissioners that he had active sexual fantasies about his victim in prison, and “couldn’t remember” when he had his last one, but that he would pray to find relief, according to a transcript obtained by Fox News Digital.
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“You don’t understand what he meant when he said he would “pray.” He told you guys right there what he was going to do,” Cruz said of her abuser during a press conference. “That he was going to go out and prey on little kids, not that he was going to be praying to God.”
During the hearing, Ceja said he would be returning to Mexico, where he illegally migrated from when he was 15. The commissioners acknowledged that Ceja will likely be deported to Mexico upon being released from prison. Commissioner Neil Schneider said that they were not “unleashing a dangerous man” to Mexico but that Ceja would be an “excellent citizen” there.
At a press conference last month, Newsom acknowledged the concerns with the Elderly Release Program, saying that there needs to be “deeper scrutiny” when it comes to the state’s handling of violent sexual predators.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment.